[Applause] Donald Trump is back at the White House and the major Focus now is going to be on what shape his anti-immigration stance will take Trump has been very vocal on his anti-immigration stance and that has largely been about illegal immigrants but his past actions in the previous term indicate a possibility of stricter immigration rules in general now this Bears High significance for India because we are the highest recipients of the H1B and L1 visas and have the highest student population in the US the H1B Visa allows American companies to hire skilled foreign workers in
specialized occupations while the L1 visas allow companies to transfer employees to their us counterparts in his past term Trump made several attempts to significantly tighten H1B Visa Norms as part of his by American and higher American stance in October 2020 he saw to increase the wage requirement for H1B visas requiring the minimum salaries to be set far higher than what was typically paid to similar us employees this was however blocked by a federal court in December 2020 the Trump Administration also sought to modify the selection process to prioritize salary and skills as against the existing
Lottery procedure another major proposal was to resend a regulation that allowed spouses of H1B Visa holders that's the H4 Visa holders to work in the US that however was also recently restored it's no surprise then that during Trump's regime rejection rates for H1B visas Rose to 177% and the rate for L1 visas Rose to 28% H1B Visa approval rates were also at a historic low of 84.5% during Trump's first term and with Trump now returning to power similar policy stances cannot be ruled out this also impacts it companies who heavily depend on skilled Workforce of
Indian origin migrating to the US on these visas in fact cognizant infosis and TCS are among the top five H1B Visa recipients and any changes to H1B could mean even higher wage and legal costs for these companies in fact costs have already begun Rising earlier in the year the US government brought about a slew of changes that made H1B visas a lot more expensive registration fee has increased 2,000% to $215 from just $10 in 2019 and application fees and fees for extension have also gone up there have also been new rules that look to curtail
the eligibility by requiring jobs to demand degrees directly related to specific speciality where for instance a business administration degree might be categorized as general and hence insufficient as per industry experts these recent changes mean employers will pay 70% more for beneficiaries on H1B Visa petitions and 2011% more for employees on L1 petitions and any more changes to H1B could mean even higher wage and legal costs for these companies but the good news is that it companies tasted the bitter pill when changes were proposed during Trump's first term and have since reduced their dependency on H1B
thus insulating themselves from any impending changes by ramping up local hiring in the US but for individuals hoping to live and work in the US in the future the process is going to be a lot stricter for more news and updates all you need to do is follow CNBC tv18 on all of our digital platforms
