{"id":57920,"date":"2018-10-30T18:59:58","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T01:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=57920"},"modified":"2018-10-30T19:00:09","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T02:00:09","slug":"h-1b-visa-reforms-may-happen-by-january-move-to-impact-indian-it-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/h-1b-visa-reforms-may-happen-by-january-move-to-impact-indian-it-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"H-1B Visa Reforms May Happen by January, Move to Impact Indian IT Firms"},"content":{"rendered":"

An attendee works on a laptop before the start of Google CEO Sundar Pichai\u2019s keynote address at the Google I\/O 2018 Conference at Shoreline Amphitheater, May 8, in Mountain View, Calif.(AFP\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n

The Trump administration has said it is planning to “revise” the definition of employment and specialty occupations under the H-1B visas by January, a move which will have an adverse impact on Indian IT companies in the U.S. and small and medium-sized contractual firms mostly owned by Indian Americans, writes Lalit K. Jha.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The H-1B visa, most sought-after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.<\/p>\n

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the only Indian company, among the top 10 firms, to get foreign labor certification for the H-1B visas for the fiscal year 2018, by receiving 20,755 such certifications, according to official data, in which Ernst & Young was ranked No 1.<\/p>\n

London-headquartered Ernst & Young, a multinational professional services firm, has emerged as the top employer to have received the certification, the U.S. Department of Labor said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, Ernst & Young with 151,164 H-1B specialist occupation labor certifications accounted for the 12.4% of all foreign labor certification for the H-1B work visas for the fiscal year 2018 ending on Sept. 30, according to the latest annual report released by the Department of Labor, early October.<\/p>\n

Ernst & Young is followed by Deloitte Consulting which received 69,869 H-1B specialty occupations labor condition approvals.<\/p>\n

Indian American-owned Cognizant Technology Corp comes at number three with 47,732 specialty occupations labor condition approvals, the Department of Labor said in its latest annual report.<\/p>\n

Cognizant is followed by HCL America (42,820), K Force Inc. (32,996), and Apple (26,833).<\/p>\n

Qualcomm Technologies (20,723), Mphasis Corporation (16,671) and Capgemini America (13,517) are other companies in the top 10.<\/p>\n

The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said, Oct. 17, that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to come out with its new proposal by January, 2019.<\/p>\n

The DHS said it was also proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B non-immigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorization.<\/p>\n

The move to end the rule could have an impact on more than 70,000 H-4 visas holders, who have work permits.<\/p>\n

The H-4 visas are issued by the USCIS to immediate family members (spouse and children under 21 years of age) of the holders of H-1B visa.<\/p>\n

The DHS said it will \u201cpropose to revise the definition of specialty occupation\u201d to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B program.<\/p>\n

It will also \u201crevise the definition\u201d of employment and employer-employee relationship to \u201cbetter protect\u201d U.S. workers and wages, the DHS said.<\/p>\n

Such a move, which is part of the Unified Fall Agenda of the Trump administration, will have a detrimental impact on the functioning of Indian IT companies in the U.S. and also small and medium-sized contractual companies in the IT sector, which are mostly owned by Indian Americans.<\/p>\n

In addition, the DHS will propose additional requirements designed to ensure employers pay appropriate wages to H-1B visa holders, the administration said.<\/p>\n

The H1-B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by the Congress. The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a U.S. master\u2019s degree or higher are exempt from the cap.<\/p>\n

As an H-1B non-immigrant, the applicant may be admitted for a period of up to three years. The time period may be extended, but generally cannot go beyond a total of six years.<\/p>\n

The DHS said it was also finalizing its interim regulation governing petitions filed on behalf of alien workers subject to the annual numerical limitations applicable to the H-1B non-immigrant classification.<\/p>\n

This rule precludes an individual from filing duplicate petitions on behalf of the same alien temporary worker.<\/p>\n

The rule also makes accommodations for petitioners to create a more efficient filing process for H-1B petitions subject to the annual numerical limitation.<\/p>\n

Observing that the demand for H-1B visas has often exceeded the numerical limitation, the DHS said it was proposing to establish an electronic registration program for such applications.<\/p>\n

This will allow USCIS to more efficiently manage the intake and lottery process for these H-1B petitions, it said.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is reviewing the H-1B visa policy that it thinks is being misused by companies to replace American workers.<\/p>\n

The administration has said publicly and also in its court filing that it wants to revoke work permits to H4 visa holders, a significant majority of whom are Indian Americans and women.<\/p>\n

The move will have a major impact on Indian women as they are the major beneficiary of the Obama-era rule.<\/p>\n

The DHS in its Unified Fall Agenda said it believed that abandoning the current practice of granting employment authorization to H-4 dependent spouses would benefit some U.S. workers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It said the proposed rule would no longer allow H-4 workers to enter the labor market early.<\/p>\n

The DHS, which has already delayed three times this year issuing of the necessary notification, said it was on its way to remove H-4 dependent spouses from getting work authorization.<\/p>\n

As of Dec. 25, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had approved 126,853 applications for employment authorization for H-4 visa holders.<\/p>\n

These count all approvals since May 2015 when the rule was implemented. This number includes 90,946 initial approvals, 35,219 renewals, and 688 replacements for lost cards.<\/p>\n

Nearly three out of every four H-1B visa holders as of Oct. 5 are Indian citizens, an official U.S. report has said.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), there were as many as 419,637 foreign nationals working in the US on H-1B visas as on Oct. 5.<\/p>\n

Of these, 309,986 are Indians, the USCIS said in its report \u2018H-1B Petitions by Gender and Country of Birth Fiscal Year 2018.\u2019<\/p>\n

The report reveals a massive gender disparity only one out of every four H-1B visa holders is female. Of the 419,637 H-1B visa holders, 106,096 (or 25.3%) are females as against 311,997 (or 74.3% males), it said.<\/p>\n

Gender disparity is wider among Indians.<\/p>\n

Of the 309,986 Indians on H-1B visas in the U.S. this October, only 63,220 or 20.4% are females while nearly 245,517 Indians on H-1B visas or 80% (79.2% to be precise) are males. As many as 1,249 Indians on H-1B visas have been characterized in the category of missing\/others.<\/p>\n

Indians, who account for 73.9% of the total H-1B visa holders in the U.S., are followed by a distant Chinese with 47,172 on H-1B visas, accounting for 11.2% of the total foreign nationals on this work visas.<\/p>\n

But there is not much gender disparity among the Chinese on H-1B visas. According to the report, 21,342 or 45.2% are females and 25,718 or 54.5% are males.<\/p>\n

After India and China, Canada and South Korea are the only two countries which account for a little over one percent (1.1% to be precise) each on H-1B visas.<\/p>\n

All other countries constitute less than one percent of the H-1B visas as of Oct. 5.<\/p>\n

The Philippines is the only country in top 10 H-1B visa holders wherein there are more females (1,712 or 52.7%) on H-1B visas than males (1,519 or 46.7%) on H-1B visas. As of Oct. 5, as many as 3,250 professionals from the Philippines were on H-1B visas.<\/p>\n

The H-1B gender report was released days after the Trump administration came out with its unified fall agenda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An attendee works on a laptop before the start of Google CEO Sundar Pichai\u2019s keynote address at the Google I\/O 2018 Conference at Shoreline Amphitheater, May 8, in Mountain View, Calif.(AFP\/Getty Images) The Trump administration has said it is planning to “revise” the definition of employment and specialty occupations under the H-1B visas by January,…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":57893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,275,5,2320,1292,11,19,20],"tags":[755,519,837,387,10878,10871,82,10873,3221,4686,2382,4685,10419,10872,2766,200,2765,4684,10874,320,230,10875,10877,6567,10879,261,56,147,380,2284,10876,6231],"class_list":["post-57920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-tech","category-community","category-current-affairs","category-finance","category-legalissues","category-lifestyle","category-topics","category-youth","tag-apple","tag-tcs","tag-uscis","tag-business-and-technology","tag-capgemini-america","tag-cognizant-technology-corp","tag-community","tag-deloitte-consulting","tag-desi","tag-dhs","tag-donald-trump","tag-ead","tag-employment-authorization","tag-ernst-young","tag-h-1b-visa","tag-h-4-visa","tag-h1b-visa","tag-h4-visa","tag-hcl-america","tag-it","tag-jobs","tag-k-force","tag-mphasis-corporation","tag-obama","tag-qualcomm-technologies","tag-san-francisco-bay-area","tag-silicon-valley","tag-siliconeer","tag-software-engineers","tag-tata-consultancy-services","tag-techie","tag-work-permit"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}