$100,000 toll on H-1B American dream

US President Donald Trump on Friday slapped a $100,000 annual application fee on the H-1B visa programme, effectively shutting the door on tens of thousands of skilled Indian employees, especially in the technology sector, and dealing a body blow to generations of people whose American dream was built on the back of the popular route to citizenship.

- Shashank Mattoo

The drastic measure, which will come into effect at midnight on September 21 for 12 months and likely face legal challenges, forced tech giants to ask employees abroad to rush back to the US before the deadline, triggering chaos across flights and airports on Saturday, often with less than 24 hours at hand.

The presidential proclamation is likely to effectively kill the programme that is the bedrock of the prosperity of the five-million strong Indian diaspora in the US as the median wage of employees under the regime is lower than $100,000 (approximately 288 lakh), according to data from the American government.

“The H-IB nonimmigrant visa programme was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labour,” Trump said in the proclamation.

“The abuse of the H-IB programme is also a national security threat. Domestic law enforcement agencies have identified and investigated H-IB-reliant outsourcing companies for engaging in visa fraud, conspiracy to launder money... and other illicit activities to encourage foreign workers to come to the United States," he said in the proclamation.