Washington: The US recently made huge changes in rules for H-1B visa. The new rules will be applicable from April 1.
It is known that Indians are the ones most benefiting from H-1B visas. Let us discuss the rules in details.
The final rule changes the selection process so that all registrations are first applied to the 65,000 visa cap. After this, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will select from the remaining applicant pool to fill the degree cap. Currently, the ‘Masters’ cap lottery is conducted first; cases not selected in this lottery are then placed in the ‘Regular’ cap lottery for another round of random selection. The amendment will tweak the selection of H-1B visa petitions to incorporate petitions of US advanced degree holders for the lottery of the first 65,000 caps.
The new rules may also make it difficult for Indian IT services companies to fight global giants like Apple, Google and others in sending engineers to the US on the work visa. Not just the companies, the change might also affect their clients in the US.
The change in the rules makes it difficult for a candidate to apply for a work visa without having an advanced US degree. Hence, Indian students studying in US universities are going to be more attractive for Indian companies going for campus placements in the US. But, this may hurt demand for higher degree courses in IIT and IIM.
Positively, the new changes might reduce brain drain and help in the growth of India’s business.
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Ms Kalinga