U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest immigration move has caused a shock wave through the global technology industry. The U.S. president signed a declaration that an annual fee of $100,000 on each H-1B visa application on Friday – a decision-making critic said that while promoting India’s technological growth story could paralyze the U.S. innovation engine.
“The losses of the United States will be the harvest of India”
Former G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant quickly weighed, saying the move was Washington’s self-target. “Donald Trump’s $100,000 H-1B fee will suffocate the innovation in the United States, as well as turbocharged India. By slamming the door to global talent, the United States will push the next batch of labs, patents, innovation and startups to Bangalore and Hyderabad, Pune and Gurgaon,” said Dr.
He stressed that this change provides an opportunity for India’s best ideas to contribute to the country’s progress. He added: “The losses of the United States will be the gains of India.”
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Entrepreneur and investor Kunal Bahl responded to this view, predicting the reverse migration of highly skilled professionals. He wrote in his post in India: “As a result of the new H1-B rules in place, a large number of talented people will return to India. There is no doubt that moving the base at the outset will be difficult, but given the huge opportunity in India, they will bring their efforts.”
New H-1B visa rules: This is what the White House says
The White House defends the move as needed to protect local work. “We need workers. We need good workers, and that almost guarantees that,” Trump declared in his announcement.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the policy would “stop companies from hiring foreign workers” while White House clerk Will Scharf called the H-1B “one of the most abused visa systems.”
“What this announcement will do is increase the company’s payment to H-1B applicants to $100,000,” Schalf said. “This will ensure that the people they bring are actually very skilled and cannot be replaced by American workers.”
At the same time, Trump also announced a new “golden card” visa program, providing individuals with $1 million in residence and $2 million to companies.
What is an H-1B visa?
The H-1B visa, launched in 1990, enables U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals with professional skills – Skilled science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). It is valid for three years and can be extended to six. Indians were the biggest beneficiaries of the visa, accounting for 71% of the approval last year, followed by 11.7% of China.
