India's top business conglomerate Tata Sons has urged the Trump administration to "recognise the contribution of India's human capital to the US economy" with regard to the H1B visa.
The White Houses's decision to impose a ban on the issuance of new H1B visas to professionals until December is seen highly detrimental to Indian IT professionals.
During a special interaction on late Tuesday evening during the US-India CEO Forum, which was chaired jointly by US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, the Tata Sons chairman R Chandrasekaran urged the US government to "recognise the contribution of India's human capital to the US economy".
An official communique from the Ministry of Commerce after the interaction said, “The India Co-Chair, Mr R Chandrasekaran urged the US government to recognise the contribution of India’s human capital to the US economy, and the need for unhindered cross-border mobility of such talent.”
It is estimated that Indian IT firms have at least 100,000 employees working in the US.
The US grants 85,000 work visas annually, of which nearly 70 percent are taken by Indians, according to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data for 2017. The USCIS noted that out of the 3.4 million H-1B visa (non-immigrant visa) applications filed in the decade to 2017, Indian applications made up around 2.2 million.