The US government's new stringent rules on data storage have upset firms like Mastercard
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The United States is currently planning on to restrict the popular H-1B visa programme, under which several skilled foreign workers are brought to the country every year. The latest development comes days ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to New Delhi. Reportedly, the largest recipient of these temporary visas is from big Technology firms. The US government's new stringent rules on data storage have upset firms like Mastercard.
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As per a report from Reuters, the US has apprised India that it is considering to restrict H-1B work visas for nations that force foreign companies to store data locally. The report comes at a time when the two countries are at tiff over tariffs and trade, claims Reuters. After Washington withdrew a key trade privilege for New Delhi, India imposed higher tariffs on some US goods.
According to US government plan, H-1B visas will be issued to Indians at between 10% and 15% of the annual quota. The US government has not laid out any country-specific limit. Reports claim that at least 85,000 H-1B work visas granted each year and 70% go to Indians.
Both officials said they were told the plan was linked to the global push for "data localisation" in which a country places restrictions on data as a way to gain better control over it and potentially curb the power of international companies. US firms have lobbied hard against data localisation rules around the world.
A Washington-based industry source aware of India-US negotiations also said the US was deliberating capping the number of H-1B visas in response to global data storage rules. The move, however, was not solely targeted at India, the source said.
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"The proposal is that any country that does data localisation, then it (H-1B visas) would be limited to about 15% of the quota. It's being discussed internally in the US government," the person said.
The US Embassy in New Delhi did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative's office (USTR) referred questions to the State Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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