A crackdown on the controversial H-1B visa intended for skilled workers has struck Indian citizens harder than other foreign nationals, with federal officials hitting them with more visa denials and demands for proof of their eligibility to work.
That's according to a report that found U.S. gatekeepers ramping up their rate of visa refusals at the end of last year and slapping applicants from India with more "requests for evidence" of eligibility than applicants from other nations. The increased denials and scrutiny were "likely due to new Trump administration policies," said the group that produced the report, the National Foundation for American Policy.
India has long dominated applications for the H-1B, which is obtained by employers seeking to hire foreign workers. From 2007 to 2017, 2.2 million H-1B applications were submitted for Indian workers. Chinese workers were the next-largest group of H-1B applicants, with about 300,000 visa requests. In Silicon Valley, about 71 percent of tech employees are foreign-born, according to a 2016 report based on U.S. census data. However, that data did not break down how many were foreign-born U.S. citizens versus visa holders.
But as the U.S. government moved forward with President Donald Trump's "Buy American and Hire American" executive order, the rejection rate for Indian workers' H-1B applications jumped to 24 percent in the fourth quarter of last year from 17 percent in the third quarter _ a 42 percent increase, according to the foundation. The foundation, a nonprofit think tank, has pushed for an increase to the number of new H-1B visas granted per year, which is currently capped at 85,000.
Indian nationals' rejection rates for the first and second quarters of 2017 were 18 percent and 17 percent respectively, highlighting the fourth-quarter spike.
Applicants from other countries were also rejected more frequently, but the percentage increase in denials was slightly smaller, rising from 14 percent in the third quarter of 2017 to 20 percent in the fourth quarter _ a 40 percent increase.
The H-1B, heavily relied upon by San Francisco Bay Area technology companies, including Google and Facebook, has become a flashpoint in the U.S. immigration debate, with the tech industry lobbying for expansion of the visa program, and critics pointing to reported abuses and arguing that H-1B visa holders take jobs from Americans. H-1B recipients are supposed to have a bachelor's degree or higher, and do specialized work.
On top of upping the rate of H-1B denials for Indian citizens, officials from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services appeared to be laying an especially heavy hand on workers from India during the application process. In the fourth quarter of 2017, 72 percent of H-1B applications for Indian citizens were met with requests for additional evidence to prove the applicant and the job were eligible for the visa, compared to 61 percent for nationals of other countries, the foundation reported.
However, the data _ which the foundation said were based on federal government figures and its own calculations _ showed a dramatic upswing in demands for evidence from citizens of all nations. In the first quarter of 2017, the rate of "requests for evidence" for Indian citizens' applications was 18 percent, and for all other countries, 14 percent. Those numbers dropped slightly in the second quarter, crept up in the third _ to 24 percent for Indians and 18 percent for citizens of other countries _ before skyrocketing in the fourth quarter.
