H-1B should attract best talent: Homeland Security
Source: PTI / Dec 22, 2018, 09.05 AM IST (Source: The Economic Times)
WASHINGTON: The US should select the “very best” among applicants for H-1B visas, the Trump administration has said, vowing to step up efforts to ensure that these work visas — the most sought by Indian IT professionals— do not harm domestic workers.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
Perhaps no other visa category has received as much attention in recent years as the H-1B, as reports of abuse of the program have caused outrage among the public, Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told members of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee during a Congressional hearing.
“No qualified hardworking American should be forced to train their H-1B replacement, and then let go,” she said. “The number of H-1B petitions routinely exceeds the statutory cap, and among that pool of petitions, we should endeavour to select the very best for the privilege of coming to the US for work,” Nielsen said.
The Department of Homeland Security seeks to ensure that American workers are not pushed aside for the promise of cheaper, foreign labour, and the employers, recruiters or any of their agents do not exploit foreign workers, she said. The Trump administration has stepped up its measures to detect employment-based visa fraud and abuse, but certain non immigrant visa programs need reform in order to protect American workers better, she said.
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