(Image source from: Kabari News)

The Trump administration on Wednesday has said it is planning to "revise" the definition of employment and specialty occupations under the H-1B visas.

The move will have a damaging impact on Indian Information Technology companies and small and medium-sized contractual firms for the most part owned by Indian-Americans.

The H-1B visa, much in demand among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that lets the United States companies hire foreign workers in specialty occupations that need technical or theoretical expertise.

The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to appear with its new proposal by January 2019.

It will "propose to revise the definition of specialty occupation" to increase focus on obtaining the foremost and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B programme.

It will as well "revise the definition" of employment and employer-employee relationship to "better protect" U.S. workers and wages, the DHS said.

Additionally, the DHS will propose additional requirements designed to ensure employers pay appropriate wages to H-1B visa holders, the administration said.

The DHS reiterated that it was proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B non-immigrants as a class of aliens suitable for employment authorization.

The H-4 visas are issued by the USCIS to immediate family members (spouse and children under 21 years of age) of the H-1B visa holders.

The DHS said it was also finalizing its interim regulation governing petitions filed on behalf of alien workers subject to the annual numerical limitations applicable to the H-1B non-immigrant classification.

This rule prevents an individual from filing duplicate petitions on behalf of the same alien impermanent worker.

The rule also makes accommodations for petitioners to create a more efficient filing process for H-1B petitions subject to the annual numerical limitation.

Observing that the demand for H-1B visas has often exceeded the numerical limitation, the DHS said it was proposing to establish an electronic registration programme for such applications.

This will let USCIS to more efficiently manage the intake and lottery process for these H-1B petitions, it said.

The Trump administration is reconsidering the H-1B visa policy that it believes is being ill-used by companies to supplant American workers.

The administration has said in public and likewise in its court filing that it wants to revoke work permits to H4 visa holders, a considerable majority of whom are Indian-Americans and women.

The move will have a crucial effect on Indian women as they are the major beneficiary of the Obama-era rule.

-Sowmya Sangam