USA :No change in H1-B visa system,Indian IT professionals relieved

Washington Jan 9 In a major relief for Indian IT professionals the US Administration has dropped the idea of tightening H1-B Visa Norms. earlier there were norms that US president Trump had ordered to review H1- B visa system which would have effects of deportation of 7.5 million Indians to the country from US.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in an statement has said that "The USCIS is not considering a regulatory change that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the United States by changing interpretation of section certain language in Section 104 C of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21) statute that states that USCIS may grant the extensions."



Jonathan Withington, Chief of Media Relations at the USCIS has said that "Even if it were, such a change would not likely result in these H-1B visa holders having to leave the United States because employers could request extensions in one-year increments under section 106(a)-(b) of AC21 instead ."

he added that "the agency is considering a number of policy and regulatory changes to carry out the President's Buy American, Hire American Executive Order, including a thorough review of employment-based visa programmes ."

Currently, H-1B extensions are provided for 6 years and many people use these extensions to apply for green card and it currently takes 10-12 years to receive green cards and many people feared they would be urged to leave the country upon expiry of H1-B visas as there was proposal of not to extend H1-B visas after 6 years.