The US has replaced random H-1B selection with a wage-weighted lottery and a new $100,000 fee for applications, raising uncertainty for students and junior hires.
As of September 2025, the expected time of interview appointments for visitor visa (B-1/B-2) at New Delhi was 12 months, far more than the time at other US consulates in the capital cities of top economies of the world.
In a complaint filed with the US Department of Labor in May, Palmer said Infosys and eight of its senior executives denied him work, bonuses and promotions and later terminated him, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
'USCIS has been making arbitrary rules for over eight years, it's our top priority to set things right.'
Let's take a look at companies that issue most visas.
New York City's unemployment rate rose to 9.7 per cent from 9.6 per cent in February.
On September 11 2009, the Department of Labor had released an initial determination in the Federal Register proposing an update to the list of 29 products from 21 countries, including India.
In sectors like IT, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, and transportation, the H-1B One Workforce grant programme would be used to upskill the present workforce and train a new generation of workers.
With accurate strategies you can create an online presence, reach out to employers and maximise your chances of getting employed.
The US government has removed a regulation proposed by former president Donald Trump's administration that sought to narrow the definition of "specialty occupation" under the H-1B visa regime. The change comes as a relief for Indian information technology firms, which are among the largest users of such visas. "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has formally vacated a regulation that would have redefined the H-1B specialty occupation, restricted off site placement of H-1B employees, and otherwise increased employer compliance obligations. "The vacatur follows a federal court ruling that set aside the regulation because the agency did not have good cause to bypass notice and comment rulemaking, in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act," explained immigration law firm Fragomen.
Ex-employee Steven Heldt had sued the company for favouring South Asians and discriminating against American workforce.
Researches reveal that many firms that employ H-1B workers directly, including some of the biggest names in the technology industry such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Qualcomm, Salesforce and Uber, pay a large share of their H-1B workers at one of the two lowest wage levels, Level 1 or Level 2.
H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa, which allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in speciality occupations
A group of six US lawmakers had recently introduced 'The US Call Center and Consumer Protection Act of 2013' in the Congress that requires overseas call centre employees to disclose their location to US consumers.
At the very least, it will cost Infosys thousands of dollars to defend its position
'Let's talk a bit about minimum and overtime wages, since that is a topic so dear to everyone's heart. After all, critics say that heartless Devyani paid poor Sangeeta neither the minimum wages nor overtime wages and since "in this country we don't do it this way," she deserves to go to jail. But the FLSA itself makes several occupations exempt from either payment of minimum wages or from overtime wages or both. Disabled people need not be paid minimum wages under FLSA. Seamen on American vessels have to be paid minimum wages but seamen on other than American vessels need not be. So how fair is the Fair Labor Standards Act,' asks Sharmista Khobragade, diplomat Devyani Khobragade's sister.
The challenges before the IT industry are many and its response over the coming months will shape the future of what has been one of the most vibrant value-creating and livelihood-enabling sectors.
According to experts, while allegations against Indian IT firms of visa misuse are nothing new, this time the scrutiny could be much greater.
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