India did not raise any concerns about President Donald Trump’s executive order to stop visa abuses that led to curbs on issuance of H-1B visas for the country’s IT workers, according to a top source who said the ‘issue was notable for its absence” during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s U.S. visit.
The Indian delegation’s strategic silence is being seen as a signal that the government is not keen to jeopardise the larger Indo-U.S. strategic relationship over a ‘small piece’ even as Indian IT firms are tweaking their business models to cope with the changed circumstances, the source said.
“In any case, the H-1B programme is undergoing a legislative review and there’s not much the executive branch can do,” the source said. “India may suffer disproportionately from changes to the H-1B visa regime, but that’s because it had also gained disproportionately from the 25-year old programme that allows U.S. tech companies to import skilled labour for skill sets that aren’t locally available,” the source said.
‘Reading tea leaves’
“But the programme was never meant to be an entitlement for one particular country. A lot of our IT CEOs in India, reading the tea leaves on the mood in Washington, have been saying we need to use this as an opportunity to change our business model that has become a little stale,” the source said.
Another official said India’s decision to refrain from raising the H-1B issue was pragmatic at two levels — it is prudent not to wade into immigration-related topics, usually considered domestic matters, especially in the current political climate — and secondly, the legislative review process for the H-1B could go either way.
“ U.S. companies still say they need the H-1B programme. In June, a group of technology sector czars met President Trump and made a pitch for retaining it,” the source said.
