Daijiworld Media Network - Washington (SHP)
Washington, Nov 6: A study by an American think-tank showed that the rejection percentage for H-1B applications increased from 6 per cent in 2015 to 24 per cent in 2019. The trend showed a spike as a result of stringent visa policies by President Trump. Based on data received from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS, the denial rate for H-1B visas was highest among major Indian IT companies.
The tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Intel, Microsoft saw a denial rate of H-1B petitions for initial employment at just one per cent. However, in 2019, it increased to six, eight, seven and three per cent while apple consecutively maintained the rejection rate at two per cent even in 2019.
Meanwhile, the Indian companies were subjected to unfair treatment, when clearly the denial rate for H-1B petitions jumped from four per cent to 41 per cent for Tech Mahindra, six per cent to 34 per cent for TCS, seven per cent to 53 per cent for Wipro and from basic two per cent to 45 per cent for Infosys.
Around 12 companies that provide professional or IT services to other US companies, including Accenture, Capgemini and others, had denial rates of over 30 per cent through the first three quarters of FY 2019. Besides in 2015, these companies had denial rates between two per cent and seven per cent.
"A key goal of the Trump administration has been to make it more difficult for well-educated foreign nationals to work in America in science and engineering fields," the National Foundation for American Policy said.
Research by Britta Glennon, assistant professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, found that "restrictive H-1B policies could not only be exporting more jobs and businesses to countries like Canada, but they also could be making the US' innovative capacity to fall behind."
This move can be seen as a temporary benefit to America but could lead to less innovation as the jobs would be pushed outside the country.