Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: IN a move that could impact Indian professionals, Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate have introduced a Bill to further restrict access to the H-1B and L1 visa programmes for foreign workers.
The legislation proposes new wage and recruitment guidelines for employers, prioritising H-1B visas for workers with STEM degrees as well as increased penalties for wage violations, according to a media report. The bill – proposed by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin – aims to “target visa fraud and abuse” and provide “protections for American workers”. However, it is unclear if the bill will become law given that most immigration reform legislation introduced in US Congress has failed over the last decade.
“Major companies are laying off thousands of American workers while filing thousands of visa petitions for foreign workers at depressed wages and poor working conditions. Congress must step in to protect American workers and fix our broken immigration system. Senator Grassley and I will work to make this bipartisan bill the law of the land,” Senator Durbin said in a statement. This development comes just weeks after US President Donald Trump announced a $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications.
These policy decisions will impact thousands of Indian professionals in America on work visas, according to immigration lawyers. The new bill – christened the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act – is expected to make foreign hiring harder.
