No restrictions in place on H-1B visas: Senior US official

A senior US official on Thursday has put to rest India's worries on the H-1B visa programme, which is currently being reviewed by the Donald Trump administration. The official has stated that there are no restrictions in place. 

The official also added that about 70 per cent of the visas that were issued under the category of H-1B over the past nine months have been given to Indians. As a matter of fact, 1.2 million Indian visas were adjudicated last year by the US. 

The official said that there has been an increase of six percent in year after year in terms of the issuance of H-1B visas and L1 visas are given to Indians. He said that there no restrictions as such but H-1B visa programme is under review. 

The issue will not be discussed on the table in the upcoming Ind-US bilateral dialogue on consular relations, according to the official. 

Another issue, on the revoking of the  Deferred Action for Children Arrival (DACA) programme, will be under discussion in the talks to be conducted on September 27 in Washington.  The repealing of the programme has affected over 7,000 Indian-Americans.

United States President Donald Trump had signed an executive order to tighten the rules of H-1B visa programme, in order to stop the visa abuses. 

The DACA amnesty programme issued work permits those immigrants who arrived in the United States illegally as children. The official has said that the US processed about 88,000 student visa application in 2016. This is a rise of 15 percent from the year 2015. 

At present, about 1.6 lakh students from India are studying in the United States. This is the second highest number of international students in the country after China. 

(With PTI inputs)