Don’t Blame Trump, He Isn’t The Reason For Your H-1B Nightmare

The decline in visa approval rate is due to increased use of digital services, which means a leaner workforce.

The report said that only 9,365 new H-1B approvals were made for the top 7 India-based companies in 2016. (Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

Were you one of the many Indians who harboured the American dream? But now feel it’s farther than before?

Well, you should not blame Trump if your H-1B visa got rejected. According to a report, American jobs are being taken over by digital services.

A report released by the National Foundation for American Policy, says that top seven Indian-based outsourcing companies in the US have received fewer H-1B visas in 2016 as compared to 2015, and as a group their approvals dropped 37 percent.

The report further said that the 9,356 H-1B visas granted to the top seven India-based companies in fiscal 2016 represent only 0.006 per cent of the US labour force.

The decline in visa approval rate is due to the IT industry leaning towards digital services, such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence. These require less workforce.

At the same time, American companies are looking to rely less on visas and build their domestic workforce.

H-1B petitions approved for initial employment in FY 2016 were filed by employers in April 2016, which means the drop in H-B visa use by these companies is not due to Donald Trump’s election.

NFAP Report

According to the report, the number of approved H-1B petitions for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) declined by 56 percent from FY 2015 to FY 2016, a drop of 2,634.

For Wipro, approvals declined by 52 percent between FY 2015 and FY 2016, a drop from 3,079 to 1,474 approved petitions.

For Infosys, it declined by 16 per cent (or 454 petitions), with 2,376 approved H-1B petitions in FY 2016, said the report which based its research on government data.

The drop in new H-1B visas for India-based companies is expected to continue when data on cases filed in April 2017 for FY 2018 comes out, the report said.