Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, declared that the H1B visa issue is now “a thing of the past” during a meeting at Vanijya Bhavan, New Delhi. He emphasized that the topic would no longer be a point of discussion in international dialogues, marking a shift in focus toward other areas of economic and strategic partnerships.
Minister Goyal’s recent visit to the United States included a two-day stay in New York, where he met with CEOs of major companies to discuss reforms initiated by the Modi government to boost foreign investments in India, particularly in the pharmaceutical and diamond sectors.
The H-1B program enables firms and other employers in the United States to temporarily hire foreign workers in occupations requiring the theoretical and practical application of highly specialized knowledge, as well as a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specified field, or its equivalent.
A report from Intead and job search platform F1 Hire, ‘Connecting Dots: How International Students Are Finding US Jobs,’ finds that on average, Washington, North Carolina, Texas, and Michigan have the most H-1B applications per employer sponsor.
While applicants coming from India dominate the international student job scene (28%) in the US, PERM applicants who earned degrees from Brazil and the Philippines have tripled since 2018. In 2023, nine out of the top 10 companies sponsoring PERM applications were in technology. A permanent labor certification (PERM) issued by the Department of Labor (DOL) allows an employer to hire a foreign worker to work permanently in the United States.
A US district court has found Cognizant Technology Solutions guilty of discrimination against non-Indian employees, stating that the company’s conduct meets the criteria for punitive damages. The lawsuit also accused Cognizant of misusing the H-1B visa process, widely used by IT companies to bring highly skilled foreign workers to the US for specialised jobs. The majority of these visas are granted to Indian nationals.
In July, Congressman Thanedar, representing Michigan’s 13th Congressional District introduced the ‘Keep STEM Graduates in America Act’, a crucial piece of legislation encouraging promising young students to stay in the US after their studies. STEM refers to four courses as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and are the most popular among international students studying in US universities.
Indian-American Congressman Shri Thanedar proposes the Keep STEM Graduates in America Act, aiming to streamline the visa process for STEM graduates in the US. The Keep STEM Graduates in America Act aims to boost H1B visa issuances and simplify the application process for international STEM graduates in the US.
US had introduced new H-1B visa rules and had hiked the visa fee from April 1, 2024.
India has seen a dramatic increase in the number of investors applying for the EB5 Visa as an alternative to student visas and H-1B visas. According to the latest data, the number of EB5 Visa applications from India has surged from nearly 750 applications in 2019 to 10,000+ applications in 2022.
The EB5 Visa Program is an investment-based visa program offered by the US government that offers a path to permanent residency in the U.S. to foreign investors who make significant investments to create at least 10 permanent jobs in the U.S. economy.
