The US Senate has voted for imposing strict conditions on hiring H-1B workers by American companies that have accepted the Federal bailout funds.
The US Senate has voted for imposing strict conditions on hiring H-1B workers by American companies that have accepted the Federal bailout funds.
However, the apex software association Nasscom said that the strict conditions would not affect Indian IT companies. But the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association said that the move by the government is a ‘disturbing step backwards’ and indicated that the measure can hamper the inflow of Indian IT professionals into the United States.
President of Nasscom, Mr. Som Mittal, said that the recent amendments means that US companies that are receiving funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TRAP) and are H-1B dependent, will need to comply with H-1B provisions.
As per the latest moves, all the TRAP recipients in the US, say banks or financial institutions, will be subjected to the same set of restrictions that are imposed on companies whose workforce comprises of more than fifteen percent of H-1B visa workers.
The condition includes companies need to actively recruit US workers and not displacing such US workers with H-1B visa holders.
Mr. Mittal said that according to his interpretation of the condition, it does not have anything to do with Indian service providers and that it is meant for US companies. He said that it neither mentions about outsourcing nor of vendors.
Further, Mr. Mittal said that the current amendment provisions were unclear and they expect it to be clearer when it goes for reconciliation to the Congress. He said that the amendments were simply a diluted version of the initial proposal. Under the initial proposal, TRAP fund recipients were barred from hiring overseas workers under the H-1B program for a period of one year.