The Indian Finance minister Mr. Arun Jaitley has strictly raised the concerns with US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross India’s over the Trump administration’s decision to narrow the H1B visa rules, highlighting the key role played by Indian professionals in uplifting economy of the America.

President Donald Trump this week signed an executive order for narrowing the rules of the H1B visa programme to stop its abuse and ensure that the visas are only given to the “experts or highly paid” applicants, a decision that would affect India’s $150 billion IT industry.

The IT industry of India is worried over the US’ decision to tighten the rules for issuing of the H1B visa, primarily applied by domestic IT professionals for short-term work. During the meeting, Jaitley raised the curbs of recent executive orders that shows a possibility of strengthening of the H1B visa rules. He draft the notable contributions the expert Indian professionals have made to the US economy and stated the hope that the US administration will review this aspect before taking any decision.

Whatever be the consequence of the review process, the Trump administration’s aim is to have an immigration policy based on merit that gives first choice to highly-skilled professionals, said Ross.

Earlier this week an executive order was signed by Trump that indicated a review of H-1B visas by various departments of the US. The H1B visa is issued to a non-immigrant to allow US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty jobs that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields.

Also Read:10 things to know about h-1B visa                  

Most Indian tech giants depend on it to employ a huge man power every year for their US operations. The US market generates about 60% of the total revenue of the Indian IT industry. Remodeling the H1B visa system was one of the major election agendas of Trump.

A majority of the H1B visas every year are granted to IT professionals from India. India accounts for the highest pool of qualified IT professionals, whose services make American techs competitive globally, as per various US reports. 

Leading an Indian delegation, Jaitley, went to Washington on April 20, to take part in the annual spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. Emphasizing that India-US relationship has a two-way support in both the countries, the FM during his meeting with the US commerce secretary, said the two largest democratic countries of the world over the years have developed strong economic, strategic and defense tie- ups.

The US commerce secretary Ross congratulated Jaitley on making the GST a reality, an official statement said in New Delhi.

Jaitley said that in the next few years the two countries have a tendency to achieve a goal of $500 billion per annum, in bilateral trade. The India’s ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna and secretary economic affairs Shaktikanta Das were also present with the FM.

Apart from these meetings and presentations at the annual spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, Jaitley was also scheduled to attend meetings of other multilateral forums including that of the G-20 finance ministers.

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