(Image source from: moneycontrol.com)

The number of H1B visas has been going up despite the rejection of visas. On 21st November, The External Affairs Minister, Jaishankar, told the Parliament about India trying to convince US that tapping into India’s talent is in the interest of both the countries.

In the house when there was a question hour going on, Jaishankar was asked about seven Indians being disqualified by the US and his response to the question was, no disqualification happened but the number of visas has come down.

Jaishankar told Rajya Sabha "Issuing visas is the sovereign prerogative of other sates. But at the same time, there are very important economic and 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”

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

Highlights

1. Talking about the denials he stated that there were 3,828 new visas and 15,230 renewals of H1B visa last year. It wasn’t just Indian companies who are denied, but, other companies as well.

2. In 2015 the H4 Spouse Visa was introduced in the US for them to work in the country. There are 93 percent of Indians who have Visa’s in this category. Since there were controversies on this, there is a court order issued and Trump administration is to review it.

3. It is not just the Indians, but, for all employees worldwide it is difficult to get H1B visas.

4. In 2019, there were 1,16,031 H1B petitions out of which 27, 707 were denied. This is the USCIS statistical data.

In 2018, According to the US Department of State, a total of 1.79 visas were issued, out of which, 1.25 lakh visas were given to Indians. This means 69 percent of Indians were given H1B visas.

By Neha Makhija