On H1-B visa, Donald Trump promises citizenship, welcomes talented, skilled people to US

The H1-B visa allows US companies to hire foreign workers in some skilled occupations. The programme has been under scrutiny and mounting restrictions since Donald Trump took office.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said major changes are coming to the H-1B visa programme, which has become a popular gateway for Indians to the US, that will offer a potential path to citizenship to those holding it.

“H-1B holders in the US can be rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring both simplicity and certainty to your stay, including a potential path to citizenship,” the President wrote on Twitter on Friday, amidst a partial shutdown of the federal government and negotiations to end it.

“We want to encourage talented and highly skilled people to pursue career options in the US.” He offered no details in the Twitter announcement. No explanation was available till the filing of this report on the path to citizenship.

Michael Bars, a USCIS spokesperson, said in a statement, “These proposed regulatory changes would help ensure more of the best and brightest workers from around the world come to America under the H-1B program, including up to an estimated 16% rise in number of selected H-1B beneficiaries with a master’s degree or higher from a US institution”.

He was referring to a set of rule changes that were proposed by the administration last December to introduce electronic registration of petitioners to replace the lottery system, which is intended to make the process less expensive, simpler and certain — to “reduce overall costs for petitioners and create a more efficient and cost-effective H-1B cap petition process.

And, two, change the processing procedures to clear more applicant masters and higher academic qualification, which would result in an estimated increase of up to 16 % (or 5,340 workers) in the number of selected H-1B beneficiaries with a master’s degree or higher from a US institution of higher education. The changes were meant to “ensure our visa system benefits Americans and US workers to the greatest extent possible and reinforces the administration’s commitment to the legal immigration process”, an official said on background.

The period for public comment ended earlier on January 2 and the next step would be for the administration to consider and respond to the comments, and then post the rule for final publication.

“We hope this can take place as soon as possible, but as you know there is a lot of work that goes into this, and nothing has been finalized,” the official added.

H-1B visa programme allows US employers, which include Indian companies with American operations such as TCS and Infosys, to hire foreigners for speciality professions to make up for the shortage of locally available hands.