H1B Visa Row: Donald Trump Sides With Elon Musk - What's The Fuss All About? Explained

An age-old debate has been sparked again in the recent times. The H-1B visa has become the cause for this contention as a cap has been established over the number of visas that can be issued annually.

What Is The H-1B Visa?

The H-1B visa allows skilled foreign workers to fill specialised positions in the United States.

The United States Federal Department of Labour describes this as a program that applies ti employers seeking to hire non-immigrant workers in specialty occupations.

According to the data on the Labour Department's website a "specialty occupation is one that requires the application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and the attainment of at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. The intent of the H-1B provisions is to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce by authorizing the temporary employment of qualified individuals who are not otherwise authorized to work in the United States."

What Is The Controversy?

The number of H-1B visas that can be issued in a year is limited.

United States of America's President-elect Donald Trump has recently expressed that he supports immigration visas for highly skilled workers.

"I have always supported these visas and have been in favour of them. That's why they exist," Trump said while speaking to the New York Post, adding, "I have many H-1B visa holders working at m propertis. I'm a strong believer in the H-1B program, and I've used it numerous times. It's an excellent program".

How Will The H-1B Visa Reforms Impact Indians?

In certain recent developments, the US government introduced some reforms to the H-1B visa programme which is expected to benefit tech professionals from India. The changes were finanlised by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on December 17, intended to modernise the programme, offer flexibility to employers, and streamlining the process for skilled foreign workers.

According to Alejandro N Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeand Security, "Tehse improvements to the programme provide employers with greater flexibility to hire global talent, boost our economic competitiveness, and allow highly skilled workers to continue advancing America innovation."

The key reforms include modernised definitions for cap-exempt organisations, which means that non-profit ad government research organisations now qualify as cap-exempt if their primary activity is research. In this case, the government will relook at things preventing the abuse of the lottery system. This step has been taken to prevent abuse by organisations filling out and submitting many applications, ensuring greater fairness for legitimate applications.

These reforms could benefit those Indians who were a part of the 72.3 per cent of teh 3,86,000 visas issued under the programme in 2003, as per US government data.

Further, there is a limit on the number of H-1B visas that can be issued to citizens of any sigle country each year as it creates challenges for nations with large pools of skileld workers like India, restricting the number of visas that their citizens can obtain.