H-1B Visa Ban Lifted to an Already 'AatmaNirbhar' Bharat


H-1B Visa Ban Lifted to an Already 'AatmaNirbhar' Bharat

President Joe Biden ended a ban on the issuance of H-1B visas for skilled workers at the end of March 2021. This makes his intent crystal clear, i.e. to take a step back from harsh immigration rules imposed by his predecessor, Donald Trump.Indian nationals seeking employment with U.S. tech firms are the largest demographic to benefit from this visa annually; this segment harvested approximately 70%.of the 65,000 H-1B visas annually made available to private sector applicants other than students. This decision coming from Biden will naturally turn the tables around for the IT workforce in India.

Gathered from few reports, it is estimated that H-1B visa applications of up to 219,000 workers were likely shelved with Trump’s announcements coming in, calling for a halt on the processing and issuance of non-immigrant work visas of several types.

The ex-president’s intent was to stop foreign workers from reducing the jobs to traces in the context of the economic distress associated with the testing times brought by COVID-19.

This obviously raisedmany eyebrows, frowning upon whether such rules would take a step back on India-U.S. relationship. Why you ask? Because this will impact the Indian IT services exported to the U.S. How much you ask? Well, to talk figures, the numbers were around approximately $29.7 billion in 2019, 3.0% ($864 million) more than 2018, and 143% greater than 2009 levels.

These outcomes are generated by this situation made by Trump, the Tech titans CEOs from Silicon Valley placed protest against this curbing of skilled labors from their staple talents also ensued in these results. Some of the Universities knocked their chances by filing lawsuits challenges on following the student visa ban last year, results in fractional unsay on the rules for the preceding.

Biden has moved with a feathery float in the regaining of talented techies from entire worlds to the U.S for the enormity of productivity in the U.S labor force by consenting to the ban on H-1B visa allocation to terminate. While comparing Trump's time of immigration policies with Biden’s, his time is the soothing one. Biden holds a clear view about the flaws of Trump's economic protectionism criteria’s such as during the economic failure time fewer jobs reserved for Americans only without considering how this living able infrastructure is has been made. However, Trump collected 74 million votes across the nation reminds Biden a fact that feasibly makes it irrational to flexibly reject the concept called ‘America First’

Ban of H-1B removal is the primary step towards the changes. The cessation, which exaggerated H 1B visas worn by technology companies to onboard foreign programmers and engineers, was forced last June. Biden was planning to retain the previous status through the removal of the ban. This motto will enhance the U.S economy and global strategic position re-acquiring, tenet stability of consensual progress, and multifaceted cooperation with countries such as India by holding a sharp accent on policies that opens U.S Nationals enter to intensely changed the post-COVID world.

Here’s how it could have affected if the visa ban was extended

Any probabilities that the Indian IT majors had picking their balance (sheets) as they stumble back through an economic recovery, could have been seriously put to rest with this move. The time back then witnessed a crucial inflection point for the Indian economy, added to the limitations on the movement of people and goods that gradually went severe as India reached its peak with the active cases. This led to a catastrophic affect on IT and other sectors.

The bilateral economic trade between the U.S. and India, is significantly dependent on the India’s IT services exports to the U.S., which in turn is dependent on the H-1B visa. Telecommunications, computer & information services, research & development, and travel sectors were the major constituents of services exports from India to the U.S.

Now, imagine the repercussions of that decision and let that sink in.

As per the last records, the U.S. was generous in issuing 85,000 H-1B visas annually. 20,000 of these H-1B visas were issued to graduate students and 65,000 were issued to applicants from the private sector. Now here’s the punchline: Indian nationals were awarded a whopping 70% of visas.

The Migration Policy Institute predicted that up to 219,000 workers would be blocked as a direct result of Trump’s decision. Well, they were right.

However, had the ban was not lifted by the succeeding Prez, the devastation to the Indian economy would have backfired on the U.S.

There were some loud petitions and requests made by the States’ economically sound and aware delegates. Those, and some louder social media uproar caught Biden’s attention and the absurdly damaging ban was revoked.

Here’s what Nasscom had to say, “"Even though our companies have hired tens of thousands of Americans and invested billions of dollars in recent years, they like others in the sector utilise such highly skilled individuals to service their clients. This new proclamation will impose new challenges and possibly force more work to be performed offshore since the local talent is not available".

Bringing the situation on face off, Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted, "Immigration has contributed immensely to America's economic success, making it a global leader in tech, and also Google the company it is today. Disappointed by today's proclamation - we'll continue to stand with immigrants and work to expand opportunity for all."

But the Indian IT sector had already been riding the wave of ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’. The prospects looked positive even in the minds of tech leaders here in India. CP Gurnani, MD, and CEO, Tech Mahindra said, “"India Inc has become a lot Aatma Nirbhar in this context. We were locally hiring and training a lot more engineers so India's own applications for H-1B visas have reduced”.