In a major relief for over seven lakh Indian techies working in US, the United States authorities have said that the Donald Trump administration is not considering any proposal that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the country. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it was not considering a regulatory change that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the United States by changing interpretation of section certain language in Section 104 C of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21) statute that states that USCIS may grant the extensions. This provides for H-1B extensions beyond the 6 year limit.
USCIS Chief of Media Relations Jonathan Withington said that even if it were, such a change would not likely result in these H-1B visa holders having to leave the United States because employers could request extensions in one-year increments under section 106(a)-(b) of AC21 instead. He also said that the agency is considering a number of policy and regulatory changes to carry out the Presidents Buy American, Hire American Executive Order, including a thorough review of employment based visa programmes. He said the USCIS was never considering such a policy change and added that any suggestion that USCIS changed its position because of pressure is absolutely false.
The USCIS has a Congressional mandate to issue 65,000 H-1B visas in general category and another 20,000 for those applicants having higher education -- masters and above -- from US universities in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The H-1B programme offers temporary US visas that allow companies to hire highly skilled foreign professionals working in areas with shortages of qualified American workers. Besides, the announcement by the USCIS came days after reports emerged that the Trump administration was considering tightening H-1B visa rules that could lead to deportation of 7,50,000 Indians.
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