In the last week or so, there has been immense speculation and uninformed discussion on the changes supposedly being made to H1B visa rules. Most of the news which is circulating in News channels a…

Source: H1B Visa Rules- Truth vs Hype

In the last week or so, there has been immense speculation and uninformed discussion on the changes supposedly being made to H1B visa rules. Most of the news which is circulating in News channels and buzzing on WhatsApp groups are all blown out of proportion.

There are mainly 3 news headlines, one is with regards to the 130K pay hike, an Executive order by trump clamping down on H1 visas, and about H4 EAD being cancelled, All these 3 have been mixed up, where as all of them are separate unrelated news to each other. Let’s first Segregate these things.

1)130K pay Hike: There is a lot of talk about how the minimum pay will be hiked to 130K for all H1b visa holders there by making it very difficult for a company to sponsor H1b visa to a new graduate or how existing H1b visa holders who have lesser pay may also be in trouble.

Truth About 130K pay hike: First things first, this 130K pay hike, is not a Executive order from President Trump but is just a bill proposed by a Democratic Congress woman Lofgren Zoe who represents 19th district of California. The main highlight of this bill is that it proposes a minimum pay of 130K for H1B dependent employers. Please read it again, the Pay hike is for employees of H1B dependent employers only, it does not apply to all H1B visa holders.

Who are H1 Dependent Employers ?:  A H1B dependent employer is one who has more than 15 % of the workforce on H1b visas. So, most of the American companies will not come under this category, The only ones who might come under this category will be Indian MNC’s who are outsourcing H1b employees from India.

Here is a snapshot from the summary of the bill which mentions this clause:

Status of the Bill: Currently this bill is proposed by a democratic congresswoman and as democratic party is in opposition and in minority in congress the likelihood  of this bill being passed is highly unlikely.

here is the link to the bill : https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/670/text

and here is the summary of the bill :

 https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/670/text

2) Trump’s Executive order (Leaked):  There is also this news making rounds on trump clamping down on H1B visas, this probably is coming from the leaked Executive order (EO) obtained by Vox, Again this is executive order document is leaked and not yet officially  announced and no one knows if at all this will see the day of light ever. Please note that the the above Pay hike to 130K is unrelated to this leaked document and there is no such mention of pay hike in this.

What does this leaked EO say ? This leaked EO is very general in nature and does not mention any specifics, it talks about how to improve the Immigration visa process to suit the national interest of the US and does not mention of reducing any H1b visa numbers, nor any changes to Lottery system. All it says about H1 visa is to identify a system to improve the allocation without any specifics. There is no talk of H4 EAD at all.

It orders a special investigation by Secretary of Labor to understand the extent of injury to US workers due to employment of nonimmigrant visa holders such as H-1, L-1 and B-1.

Here is the link to the news published by Vox about this leaked EO:

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/25/14390106/leaked-drafts-trump-immigrants-executive-order

Status of the EO: No one actually know’s if this EO will ever come out, and how authentic this leak actually is.

3) H-4 EAD removal: 

There has been news also about the H4 EAD being revoked, this probably is stemming from the following news story: A group named “Save jobs USA” has filed a case in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on January 11 2017 to revoke the H4 EAD.

They claim that the H4 EAD is creating job losses to the members of Save jobs USA and there is no protection for them. This is the second time this group is filing this case, the first time it filed was in 2015 and the court struck down their appeal in that case.

Now in response to the new case filed, the trump administration has requested the courts a time of 60 days in order to submit their brief in response the petition filed by “Save jobs USA”. Some news that the Trump administration has passed a motion to revoke H4 EAD is completely untrue.

Here is the link which gives more details on this: http://immigrationgirl.com/the-real-story-of-trumps-court-filing-in-the-h-4-ead-litigation/

No need to panic:

As of now, none of these have been passed nor anything ordered, So no one needs to worry or panic.

If one talks to our generation including me, who are born in the late eighties in fairly educated middle class families, you would observe that most of them have pretty comfortable Lifestyles, high income jobs,  yet most would agree, there is something missing in our life, we can’t complain, it’s not that we are sad, it’s just that indescribable feeling of emptiness, it’s a state where we are having a lot of fun but don’t experience happiness.

When we wake up in the morning, there is nothing much we look forward to, (of course except for the morning Chai) we get through the week waiting for Friday to arrive and when it actually arrives, apart from relishing a Biryani or hanging out with friends we actually postpone our plans of doing something different, something productive to the next weekend and this vicious cycle of growing todo list, weekdays, making plans and splashing away time.

By the time, we come to know of our frustrations we realize we have already glossed through many years of life, never paused to think as to what is the Vision we have for ourselves, what’s the goal of our life, what’s the Passion that drives us to a feverish pitch. We never asked these questions to ourselves as we were busy trying to “Settle” in life. Yes, the single biggest mistake of our life has been this attempt at trying to settle, where as most successful people on this planet have never settled, in this strive to settle we rammed through our studies, gulped life, it’s like swallowing the tablet doctor gave you, although we all may have “settled” in life if you look back, we don’t have any real achievements. The 10th class mark sheet and the EAMCET rank which was supposed to change your life has no meaning.

In order to know what’s our passion, we need to spend time with ourselves in solitude, we need to brew ideas in our mind, we need to work at it, by trying different things. So, it’s never too late, I for myself have decided to work on it slowly, as I do not have the guts to dump my job and jump into the unknown future but rather do it step by step, post by post. Taking inspiration from the speech given by Meryl Streep, where she said to convert “Pain into art”, I have converted my frustration into this expression.

I don’t mean to generalize when I attributed this state of mind to many of them from my generation, but I strongly believe there are quite a few who would connect with me. All of us who are going through this struggle, I call them “21st century laborers” as usually labor is associated with struggle. No wonder USA gives us “Labor Visa”.