Changes in H-1B visa rules and its impacts
Posted on: 02/Feb/2019 2:36:42 PM
The H-1B visa rules are considerably changed as per the US announcement. Starting from 1st of April, these new rules are set to come into effect.
The primary beneficiaries of the H-1B visa are Indians. So, here is all you need to know as to how the changes in rules will affect Indians, especially IT workers.
Changes in the selection process
The latest rule has imposed a change in the selection process according to which the visa registrations are to be firstly applied at the 65,000 visa cap. Following this, selection will be done by USCIS out of all the applications. At present the Masters lottery is the first step in the process. When cases don’t get selected in this class, the next stage is Regular cap where there is another round of selection.
First preference shall be given to US university students.
With the new changes, among all the H-1B applications, those who apply for US advanced degree will be given priority ion the lottery involving 65,000 cap .
USCIS order reversal
The order in which the H-1B petitions are selected by the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) is reversed in the new rules.
Indian IT is tough to compete with Apple or Google or others
The changes in rules is likely to affect the Indian IT companies in combating with the global players such as Apple or Google in terms of sending across the engineers to the US for work reasons.
Hitting the Indian IT workers
It is not just that the new rules are to affect the Indian IT companies, but also the employees working with them. Also the US companies dependent on these Indian IT companies are likely to get hit.
Indian aspirants who opt out of advanced US degree to see a tough
If you have not got the aspiration to pursue an advanced US degree, and still want to apply for H-1B visa, it is going to be tough for you to get your visa.
Improved local hiring within US
Indian talents who hold advanced US degree have got more chance of getting hired. Analysts say the Desi companies are going to eye on the Indian talents pursuing studies in the US universities and go for campus selection.
Increase in selecting H-1B local petitions by 16 percent
H-1B petitions who hold master’s degree will have 16 percent more likeliness of getting the visa.
Lesser brain drain for Indians
With the H-1B visa rules getting stringent, it is likely that the overall brain drain for the Indians will get lesser.
Challenge the IIT
This new rule entices to take up a US post-graduation degree, thus largely impacting the top-level IIT and IITM courses.
