Technology companies, primarily in US and India, have long used the visas to bring skilled foreign talent to America, in effect providing a route for Indian students and professionals to emigrate to the US.
“It’s part of a larger immigration reform effort that the president will continue to talk about through executive order and through working with Congress,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Tuesday, virtually confirming that the nearly two-decade visa regime over three administrations, which has effectively facilitated the immigration of more than 5,00,000 Indians to the US since 1990, will now change.
Ahead of the expected executive order, lawmakers have introduced legislation mandating an increase in the minimum salary for H1B visa guest workers to $1,30,000 (from the current $ 60,000) in an effort to shutdown low-cost arbitrage that both US and Indian companies have used to improve their bottom line, but which critics say has depressed wages and come at the expense of American workers.
The flurry of presidential decrees on the travel and immigration has unnerved corporate leaders, including Silicon Valley honchos.
