India trying to convince U.S. that tapping into Indian talent is in mutual benefit: Jaishankar

The Minister said the number of HI-B visas have gone down and that denial rates have gone up not only for Indian companies but for all companies.

November 21, 2019 05:19 pm | Updated 05:20 pm IST - New Delhi:

Photo for representational purpose only.

Photo for representational purpose only.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday told the Parliament that India is trying to convince the U.S. that tapping into the Indian talent is in mutual benefit of the two countries.

“Issuing visas is the sovereign prerogative of other states. But at the same time, there are very important economic, business and social interests...We are constantly in touch with the American system, the American government, members of the Congress to convince them that tapping into the Indian talent pool is for our mutual benefit,” Mr. Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha.

He said India has been successful in convincing the U.S. to a “large extent as actually if you look at the numbers, the number of HI-B visas has been going up in the last few years even though the total rejection rate has been coming down”.

Replying to a question during the Question Hour in the House whether seven Indian IT majors were disqualified for H-IB visa by the U.S., Mr. Jaishankar said there was no disqualification but the number of visas have gone down.

“With regard to seven major Indian employers there is no disqualification on any of them. The number of visas for which they have applied to has come down in the last two years. Denial rates have also gone up,” he said.

The Minister added that denial rates have not gone up only for Indian companies but for all companies. As regards to the seven companies, they got 3,828 new visas and 15,230 renewals of HI-B visas last year, he said. About the spouses of the Indians, Mr. Jaishankar said, H4 visa was introduced in the U.S. in 2015 for them to work in the country.

“Indians today account for 93% of the total number of visas issued in this category. There was some controversy whether this programme will be continued but right now it is continuing...There is a court order to the effect that it should be continued but the Trump administration has indicated that it may review it,” he said.

The Minister said an H-IB visa application has become “more complex” for employees worldwide, including Indian IT companies, due to administrative changes in the programme which have increased documentation requirements on the petitioners.

These changes have impacted the processing of H-IB petitions in general entailing a high number of scrutiny, he said.

As per USCIS statistics, the Minister said, a total of 116,031 initial or new HI-B petitions were processed and completed in fiscal 2019, out of which 27,707 were denied.

Mr. Jaishankar said in fiscal 2018, 1.25 lakh H-IB visas were issued to Indian nationals which accounted for 69.9% of the total 1.79 H-IB visa issued as per the U.S. Department of State.

“Indian nationals account for nearly 70% of all H-IB visas issued even though the share of Indian IT companies in H-IB visas is relatively small,” he said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.