IT firms in trouble as US halts premium H1B visa processing for 6 months

Citing backlog, authorities put applications on hold from April

Uncertainty for the Indian information technology (IT) sector worsened, with the US suspending the processing of premium H1B visas citing a backlog of applications.

The move would adversely impact domestic software exporters such as Tata Consultancy Services (Tcs) and Infosys as well as multinational firms such as IBM and Google, who send engineers to work on projects in the US. 

Even as the US Citizenship and Immigration Services made this announcement, Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar was in the US to engage with President Donald Trump’s administration, asking it to not impose restrictions on the entry of engineers. This suspension