India expresses concern about Trump plan to hike charges on H-1B visas that deliver tech employees to US | EUROtoday

The Indian authorities expressed concern Saturday about President Donald Trump’s newest push to upend American immigration coverage, dramatically elevating the charge for visas that deliver tech employees from India and different international locations to the United States.

The president on Friday signed a proclamation that can require a $100,000 annual charge for H-1B visas — meant for high-skilled jobs that tech corporations discover exhausting to fill. He additionally rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa for rich people, strikes that face near-certain authorized challenges amid widespread criticism he’s sidestepping Congress.

If the strikes survive authorized muster, they are going to ship staggering worth will increase. The visa charge for expert employees would bounce from $215.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs mentioned Saturday that Trump’s plan “was being studied by all concerned, including by Indian industry.″ The ministry warned that ”this measure is more likely to have humanitarian penalties by the use of the disruption brought about for households. Government hopes that these disruptions might be addressed suitably by the U.S. authorities.″

Critics say the H-1B visas undercut American employees

H-1B visas, which require at the least a bachelor’s diploma, are meant for high-skilled jobs that tech corporations discover tough to fill. Critics say this system undercuts American employees, luring folks from abroad who are sometimes prepared to work for as little as $60,000 yearly. That is properly beneath the $100,000-plus salaries usually paid to U.S. know-how employees.

Trump on Friday insisted that the tech business wouldn’t oppose the transfer. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick mentioned “all big companies” are on board.

Representatives for the largest tech corporations, together with Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, didn’t instantly reply to messages for remark. Microsoft declined to remark.

Lutnick mentioned the change will seemingly end in far fewer H-1B visas than the 85,000 annual cap permits as a result of “it’s just not economic anymore.”

“If you’re going to train people, you’re going to train Americans,” Lutnick mentioned on a convention name with reporters. “If you have a very sophisticated engineer and you want to bring them in … then you can pay $100,000 a year for your H-1B visa.”

Trump additionally introduced he’ll begin promoting a “gold card” visa with a path to U.S. citizenship for $1 million after vetting. For corporations, it should value $2 million to sponsor an worker.

Trump gives “Platinum Card”

The “Trump Platinum Card” can be obtainable for $5 million and permit foreigners to spend as much as 270 days within the U.S. with out being topic to U.S. taxes on non-U.S. revenue. Trump introduced a $5 million gold card in February to interchange an current investor visa — that is now the platinum card.

Lutnick mentioned the gold and platinum playing cards would change employment-based visas that supply paths to citizenship, together with for professors, scientists, artists and athletes.

Critics of H-1Bs visas who say they’re used to interchange American employees applauded the transfer. U.S. Tech Workers, an advocacy group, referred to as it “the next best thing” to abolishing the visas altogether.

Doug Rand, a senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services throughout the Biden administration, mentioned the proposed charge enhance was “ludicrously lawless.”

“This isn’t real policy — it’s fan service for immigration restrictionists,” Rand mentioned. “Trump gets his headlines, and inflicts a jolt of panic, and doesn’t care whether this survives first contact with the courts.”

Lutnick mentioned the H-1B charges and gold card could possibly be launched by the president however the platinum card wants congressional approval.

Visas doled out by lottery

Historically, H-1B visas have been doled out by way of lottery. This yr, Amazon was by far the highest recipient of H-1B visas with greater than 10,000 awarded, adopted by Tata Consultancy, Microsoft, Apple and Google. Geographically, California has the best variety of H-1B employees.

Critics say H-1B spots typically go to entry-level jobs, slightly than senior positions with distinctive talent necessities. And whereas this system isn’t imagined to undercut U.S. wages or displace U.S. employees, critics say corporations will pay much less by classifying jobs on the lowest talent ranges, even when the precise employees employed have extra expertise.

As a outcome, many U.S. corporations discover it cheaper to contract out assist desks, programming and different fundamental duties to consulting corporations corresponding to Wipro, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Tata in India and IBM and Cognizant within the U.S. These consulting corporations rent international employees, typically from India, and contract them out to U.S. employers wanting to economize.

Ron Hira, a professor within the political science division at Howard University and a longtime critic of H-1B visas, mentioned the plan was a transfer in the fitting course.

“It’s a recognition that the program is abused,’’ he said.

Raising the visa fee, he said, was an unusual way to address the H-1B program’s shortcomings. Normally, he said, reformers seek ways to raise the pay of the foreign workers, eliminating the incentive to use them to replace higher-paid Americans. He noted approvingly that Trump’s proclamation calls for the U.S. Labor Department to “initiate a rulemaking to revise the prevailing wage levels’’ under the visa program.

Critics of H-1B visas have also called on the lottery to be replaced by an auction in which companies vie for the right to bring in foreign workers.

The first lady received an H-1B visa in the ’90s

First lady Melania Trump, the former Melania Knauss, was granted an H-1B work visa in October 1996 to work as a model. She was born in Slovenia.

In 2024, lottery bids for the visas plunged nearly 40%, which authorities said was due to success against people who were “gaming the system” by submitting a number of, generally doubtful, functions to unfairly enhance probabilities of being chosen.

Major know-how corporations that use H-1B visas sought adjustments after large will increase in bids left their staff and potential hires with slimmer probabilities of profitable the random lottery. Facing what it acknowledged was seemingly fraud and abuse, USCIS this yr mentioned every worker had just one shot on the lottery, whether or not the individual had one job supply or 50.

Critics welcomed the change however mentioned extra must be achieved. The AFL-CIO wrote final yr that whereas adjustments to the lottery “included some steps in the right direction,” it fell wanting wanted reforms. The labor group needs visas awarded to corporations that pay the best wages as a substitute of by random lottery, a change that Trump sought throughout his first time period within the White House.

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Ortutay reported from Oakland, Calif. Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.