Rush for H-1B visas slows as low wages, protectionism take sheen off US jobs

SILICON VALLEY/NEW DELHI: H-1 B visa, Indian techies' passport to the American dream, has lost a great part of its sheen in the past year or so after a barrage of sobering news against a darkening political backdrop. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the nodal agency that apportions H-1B visas, has received only 18,000 applications until May for the US financial year beginning October, indicating a repeat of last year when the flow of petitions towards the quota of 65,000 was laboured. Contrast this to three years ago when the quota was exhausted within a day. The USCIS was then flooded with 1.5 lakh applications and had to resort to a lottery system for allotments.

Factors as diverse as the Employ American Workers Act (EAWA), a key legislation that stresses on jobs for US citizens, to dropping wage rates, to limping recovery and high unemployment rates in America are to blame for the free fall in H-1B petitions, say experts, IT professionals and companies. For the first time, H-1B visa holders are being driven back to India, their plans for a longer sojourn in the world's largest economy coming to an abrupt end. "Many Indian IT companies are not applying for H-1 B visas," said Avinash Vashishtha, CEO of Tholons, an offshore advisory firm.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/travel/visa-power/Rush-for-H-1B-visas-slows-as-low-wages-protectionism-take-sheen-off-US-jobs/articleshow/6009505.cms

Indian companies, IT firms in particular, corner a lion's share of this classification reserved for foreign workers with skills needed in the US economy, allotted on a first-come-first-served basis. Though it is the same story every year, there has been a drastic fall in numbers.