By Neha Alawadhi, ET Bureau | Jan 26,
2017, 06.40 AM IST
NEW DELHI: Indian engineers have for long viewed the US as
the land of El Dorado with its promise of riches — professional and personal. But they are now a deeply worried lot as
nationalist rhetoric turns shrill in Donald Trump’s America.
Riddled with insecurity about the status of their visas and
unsure about continuation at American workplaces, scores of Indian techies are turning to social media platforms to express
deep-seated angst.
In a bid to gauge their mood, ET spoke to several US-based engineers
of Indian origin who declined to be identified fearing professional retribution, but expressed a multitude of fears
about what the future might hold for them.
“I got married last year. How much do you think I’ll have to
earn to live a comfortable life in Delhi?” asked a senior information technology project manager, who has lived in the US for seven
years and works for a technology corporation on an H-1B visa.
His peers are asking similar questions as the Trump
government makes plain its intention to tighten the H-1B visa programme. Armies of Indian coders have used this programme to work in
the world’s largest market for IT services.
Industry estimates place the total number of Indian engineers
on H-1B visas in the US at 300,000-350,000. This includes employees of Indian tech companies such as Infosys, Tata
Consultancy Services and Wipro as well as those employed by American multinationals like Accenture and IBM.
American politicians, of all hues, have regularly taken umbrage at this model of outsourcing.
The Indian information technology services industry is now
estimated to be worth $150 billion.
The lack of clarity on how exactly the Trump administration
will tweak visa norms is fuelling apprehension among Indian techies.While some have put off key financial decisions, others say
their job prospects have dimmed since the change of guard at the White House.
“I have put plans to buy a house on hold, because my visa is
expiring next year. So, I don’t know how my green card application, which was supposed to begin in February, would get affected,”
said a management graduate who earned his degree in the US and
now lives in Texas.
A New York-based information management specialist who
has been in the US since 2012 said he has experienced an immediate fallout of the Trump presidency. “I was looking for a job and
got one a few weeks ago. But they stalled the appointment because I have an H-1B visa,” he said. “The problem is, we don’t yet
know about Trump’s stand on legal immigration. But with him, you never know. So companies are being cautious.”
Uncertainty extends to Spouses
A foreign worker with an H-1B visa can stay in the US for a
maximum of six years, with an initial validity of three years that can be extended by another three, according to legal advice site
nolo.com.
It is not just the engineers who are worried. The uncertainty
extends to their spouses too. The fate of the Obama administration’s decision in 2014 to allow spouses of H1-B visa holders to
apply for work permits in the country also hangs in the balance.
“I have to apply for a work permit (EAD) under this
provision, but now there is no clarity on how that will work. So we’re waiting
and watching,” said a woman who worked as a business analyst in
one of India’s top IT companies before relocating to San Francisco in
2014 after marriage. Her husband studied in the US, and now
works in Silicon Valley in one of the world’s largest technology companies.
At present, the US has a cap of 65,000 visas for the general
category and allows a further 20,000 people who have a US masters’ degree from an accredited institution to also apply. In a
year, nearly 200,000 H-1B visa applications are approved, including visa renewals, extensions and other exempt categories.
WORRIES OVER VISA RENEWALS TOO
Professionals whose visas are coming up for renewal are a
worried lot too. On his first day in office, Trump promised to ask the US department of labor to investigate the work visa programmes.
“My visa is coming up for renewal in some time, and I am a
little uncertain. But I won’t blame Trump, because he definitely needs to take some hard steps to avoid visa exploitation by
companies,” said a senior developer who works for a financial services company in Utah.
Most of the senior professionals ET spoke to are of the view
that the H-1B visa system, which was designed for “highly skilled workers”, has been misused by some technology companies.
“Indian work visa-sponsoring companies import
fresh-off-the-boat Indian workers under long-term labour bonds to displace experienced Indian techies already present in the US on H-1B
visas,” said Rajiv Dabhadkar, founder of the National Organisation for Software and Technology Professionals, which works for Indian
workers overseas.
“It’s the smaller and relatively unknown outsourcing outfits
that have been known to rampantly abuse the system,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief executive officer at Greyhound Research.
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