New Delhi: The year 2018 registered a sharp 10 per cent decline in the approval of H1B visa, which is popular among highly-skilled Indian IT professionals, according to the US authorities.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approved 335,000 H1B visas, which included both new and renewable, in the fiscal year 2018.
The approval rate of H1B declined from 93 per cent in 2017 to 85 per cent in 2018.
“This administration has aggressively pursued strategies to clamp down on the use of the H-1B programme, and these efforts are now showing in the data,” Migration Policy Institute analyst Sarah Pierce was quoted as saying by The Mercury News.
The Trump administration has tightened the noose on firms violating H-1B visa rules. President Donald Trump has himself accused many IT companies of abusing the work visas to deny jobs to American workers.
The H1B visa programme is the main vehicle through which US employers can sponsor skilled foreign workers for admission.
The H1B visa, popular among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
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Ms Kalinga