The Donald Trump administration has announced new restrictions on the H-1B non-immigrant visa programme, which it said was aimed at protecting American workers, seeking to better guarantee that petitions are approved only for qualified beneficiaries, a move that will affect thousands of Indian IT professionals.

The interim final rule announced by the department of homeland security (DHS) on Tuesday, ahead of the US presidential elections on November 3, will narrow the definition of “specialty occupation” as Congress intended by closing the overbroad definition that allowed companies to game the system.

It will also require companies to make “real” offers to “real employees”, by closing loopholes and preventing the displacement of American workers. And finally, the new rules will enhance the department’s ability to enforce compliance through worksite inspections and monitor compliance before, during and after an H1-B petition is approved.

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

Such a decision by the Trump administration will have an adverse impact on thousands of Indian IT professionals. Already a large number of Indians on the H-1B visas have lost their jobs and are headed back home during the pandemic that has severely hit the US economy.
According to the DHS, the interim final rule to be published in the Federal Register will be effective in 60 days.

It said the US Citizenship and Immigration Services was forgoing the regular notice and comment period to immediately ensure that employing H-1B workers would not worsen the economic crisis caused by Covid and adversely affect wages and working conditions of similarly employed US workers.

Data show that more than half a million H-1B non-immigrants in the US have been used to displace American workers, which has led to reduced wages in a number of industries in the US labour market and the stagnation of wages in certain occupations, the DHS said.

The department of labour said that the prevailing wage rates in these programmes played an integral role in protecting US workers from unfair competition posed by the entry of lower cost foreign labour into the country’s labour market.