
As Donald Trump prepares to enter office as the 47th President of the United States of America (USA) on January 20, many Indian H-1B visa holders are concerned about prospective changes to immigration regulations that could endanger their opportunities in America.
Employers and immigration attorneys are advising these visa holders to return to the United States before the inauguration, believing that new laws may impede their re-entry, Business Today reports.
In a recent news statement, the US Embassy in India reassured Indians seeking to renew their H-1B visas that they will no longer be needed to leave the country, a significant development for many workers in specialised occupations who had previously had to return to India for visa renewal.
Indians, the second largest immigrant community in the United States after Mexicans, are at the centre of the ongoing H-1B visa debate. In light of these concerns, some US companies are increasingly turning to remote employment to address potential challenges.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will introduce significant modifications to the H-1B visa programme beginning January 17, 2025, under the H-1B Modernisation Final Rule. This modification intends to improve monitoring while also making it easier to hire highly educated foreign specialists.
The H-1B visa programme, founded in 1990, has become vital for closing significant talent gaps in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) industries. Indian professionals dominate the programme, accounting for more than 72 per cent of the 386,000 H-1B visas issued or renewed in 2023.
The fear among Indian H-1B visa holders is heightened by the memories of Trump's previous presidency, when his top assistant, Stephen Miller, adopted rules that made the examination of H-1B applications stricter, resulting in a 24 per cent rejection rate in 2018.