What Happened to U.S. Plans to Raise the H-1B Visa Ceiling?

• By
• Dhanya Ann Thoppil

U.S. President Barack Obama paused as he made a statement at the White House Aug., 2014.

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A long-anticipated increase in the number of H-1B visas issued to work in the United States has been delayed indefinitely, experts said, as the debate about immigration has turned toxic in Washington.
United States President Barack Obama said last week that he would put off executive action on immigration until after the midterm elections. Earlier he had said he would act to revamp the immigration system by the end of the summer. Now, White House officials say the president will act by the end of the year.
The executive action had been widely expected to ratchet back deportations and possibly offer work permits to people in the U.S. illegally. It might have also included administrative changes pushed by companies that would produce more legal visas for people seeking to work in the U.S.
India’s outsourcing firms that have been lobbying to increase the number of H-1B visas that are issued each year. The visas are the work visa issued for people with special skills and used by Indian programmers and engineers that go to work in the United States.
Outsourcing companies such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.532540.BY +0.58%, Infosys Ltd.500209.BY +0.07% and Wipro Ltd.507685.BY -0.34% send thousands of skilled Indian workers to the U.S. every year to take care of their clients.
The U.S. immigration reforms bill, introduced last year, sought to triple the number of H-1B visas available to 180,000 a year. Last year, the Senate passed the bill that included a path to legal status and citizenship for many illegal immigrants. But the House pulled the bill from the floor in July as many lawmakers argued that the proposed changes encouraged an influx if illegal immigrants at the border.  It is still uncertain when the reform bill will be considered again.
Unable to pass the bill, President Obama was planning on pushing through the changes he was allowed to implement without needing the approval of Congress.
“Nothing path-breaking is being expected in the form of number of visas being increased,” said Gagan Sabharwal, director for trade and development at the National Association of Software and Services Companies, India’s main software trade body.
Late in the year, immigration President Obama may try to make some administrative changes to streamline the processing of the skilled-worker visa program but the ceiling of how many that can be handed out per year will not be raised, experts said. He also may change the rules to make it easier for the spouses of H1-B visa holders to work in the United  States.
“In the absence of Congressional action, a president can use his executive authority to interpret or reinterpret federal law,” said Blake Chisam, a partner at U.S.-based immigration services firm Fragomen Global Immigration Services LLC.
Mr. Chisam said the president may also try to make changes to the way green cards are allocated and also increase the amount of time foreign students are allowed to stay in the U.S. and work after graduating.
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