Nearly 100,000 skilled Indian workers' prospects of living the American dream may turn sour with the Congress barring firms that received bailout money from hiring foreigners through HI-B visa programme if they replace US citizens.
Estimates suggest that there are 100,000 Indian nationals among the 163,000 from across the world that had applied for the skilled worker visa in FY2009.
The US has capped the H1-B visa at 65,000 a year, out of which 40,000-45,000 generally goes to Indian professionals, mostly from the IT industry.
Restricting hiring of H1-B visa holders forms part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, widely known as the stimulus bill, that was passed by the Congress yesterday.
With thousands of jobs being cut by US companies almost daily over the past few months, there have been widespread apprehensions that these positions could go to low-cost foreign workers or might be outsourced to places like India.
The government data for 2008 shows that about 5.7 lakh Indians were issued H1-B and other non-immigrant visas.
The bar comes even as IT firms in the US and India are demanding an increase in the H1-B visa cap, which was cut from 195,000 to the present level two years ago. Indians then accounted for over 100,000 H1-B visas. Experts believe the Congress' move would certainly impact hiring of H1-B visa holders, thus affecting in a big way the engagement of Indian techies in the US, but might not affect outsourcing of jobs to places like India.
Senator Bernie Sanders, who along with another Senator Charles Grassley had moved the proposal for such restrictions, said that about a dozen banks which are getting over USD 150 billion as the bailout money have sought visas for over 21,800 foreign workers in past six years to replace sacked Americans.
These banks have announced at least one lakh job cuts in the recent months, Sanders noted.
Earlier this month, India-born international economist Jagdish Bhagwati also argued that the provision to restrict hiring of H1-B visa holders would deprive the US of the best global talent which comes in the form of highly trained and talented people.
"In terms of broader considerations like the people who are coming in on H1-B visas -- they're frequently highly trained and talented people and ... a lot of our progress and prosperity depend on having such people," Bhagwati, Professor of Economics at the Columbia University had said.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association, which also has been opposing the measure, described the Congress approval as "disappointing" and argued that this would prove to be counterproductive as it prevents the US companies to hire the best available global talent.
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