是真的么？US tells India it is mulling caps on H-1B visas to deter data rules

Reuters
New Delhi
June 20, 2019 UPDATED: June 20, 2019 07:16 IST

US tells India it is mulling caps on H-1B visas to deter data rules: Report
The plan to restrict the popular H-1B visa program, under which skilled foreign workers are brought to the United States each year, comes days ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to New Delhi.


The United States has told India it is considering caps on H-1B work visas for nations that force foreign companies to store data locally, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, widening the two countries' row over tariffs and trade.

The plan to restrict the popular H-1B visa program, under which skilled foreign workers are brought to the United States each year, comes days ahead of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to New Delhi.

India, which has upset companies such as Mastercard and irked the US government with stringent new rules on data storage, is the largest recipient of these temporary visas, most of them to workers at big Indian technology firms.

The warning comes as trade tensions between the United States and India have resulted in tit-for-tat tariff actions in recent weeks. From Sunday, India imposed higher tariffs on some US goods, days after Washington withdrew a key trade privilege for New Delhi.

Two senior Indian government officials said on Wednesday they were briefed last week on a US government plan to cap H-1B visas issued each year to Indians at between 10% and 15% of the annual quota. There is no current country-specific limit on the 85,000 H-1B work visas granted each year, and an estimated 70% go to Indians.

Both officials said they were told the plan was linked to the global push for "data localization", in which a country places restrictions on data as a way to gain better control over it and potentially curb the power of international companies. US firms have lobbied hard against data localization rules around the world.

A Washington-based industry source aware of India-US negotiations also said the United States was deliberating capping the number of H-1B visas in response to global data storage rules. The move, however, was not solely targeted at India, the source said.

"The proposal is that any country that does data localization, then it (H-1B visas) would be limited to about 15% of the quota. It's being discussed internally in the US government," the person said.

The US Embassy in New Delhi did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative's office (USTR) referred questions to the State Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

IT SECTOR

Most affected by any such caps would be India's more than $150 billion IT sector, including Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Ltd, which uses H-1B visas to fly engineers and developers to service clients in the United States, its biggest market. Major Silicon Valley tech companies also hire workers using the visas.

Stratfor analyst Reva Goujon on Twitter called the move "potentially another big blow to the US #tech industry amid US-#China economic battle," a sentiment echoed on social media by some Indians and their supporters.

India's Ministry of External Affairs has sought an "urgent response" from officials on how such a move by the United States could affect India, said one of the two government officials, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

India's Ministry of External Affairs, as well as the commerce department that is typically involved in such discussions, did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Since last year, the Trump administration has been upset that U.S. companies such as Mastercard and Visa suffer due to regulations in several countries that it says are protectionist and increasingly require companies to store more data locally.

India last year mandated foreign firms to store their payments data "only in India" for supervision, and New Delhi is working on a broad data protection law that would impose strict rules for local processing of data it considers sensitive.

While governments the world over have been announcing stricter data storage rules to better access data in their jurisdictions, critics say restricting cross-border data flows hurts innovation and raises companies' costs.

In March the USTR, in a press note, highlighted "key barriers to digital trade", citing data-flow restrictions in India, China, Indonesia and Vietnam, among others.

At a US-India Business Council event last week, Pompeo said the Trump administration would push for free flow of data across borders, not just to help US companies but also to secure consumers' privacy.






补充内容 (2019-6-20 20:30):
当前，每年85000的H1B获批人数里，超过70%来自印度。现在，可能将设定，来自印度的上限不得超过10%-15%！

The proposal is that any country that does data localization, then it (H-1B visas) would be limited to about 15% of the quota

莫不是觉得中国拿到的H1B比8500-13000少？

补充内容 (2019-6-20 20:49):
在这一点上中国印度在一条船上

thinkmate 发表于 2019-6-20 21:17
请教，当前来说，中国人在H1B中签里，占比是15%，还是大约多少呢？

我也在思考这个问题
2018年中国人总共提交的H1B申请是47000份，包括Transfer和Extension，但是我完全找不到数据说明多少是Transfer多少是Extension多少是Lottery

Source：https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/o ... -sources/ar-AAD94W4

当前，每年85000的H1B获批人数里，超过70%来自印度。现在，可能将设定，来自印度的上限不得超过10%-15%！

如果能通过的话，感觉对其他国家都有利啊

striges1111 发表于 2019-6-20 20:46
The proposal is that any country that does data localization, then it (H-1B visas) would be limited  ...

印度商会，肯定要去游说。

如果达成一个妥协，全部一刀切，上限提到20%或30%呢？

thinkmate 发表于 2019-6-20 20:59
. 1point3acres印度商会，肯定要去游说。

如果达成一个妥协，全部一刀切，上限提到20%或30%呢？

30%中国血赚吧
30%对于中国学生来说余量应该充沛
然后中国ICC将如雨后春笋一般冒出来

补充内容 (2019-6-20 21:11):
但是明显这是政治工具，而且中国也是被针对的一方，肯定不能让中国占到便宜

striges1111 发表于 2019-6-20 21:10
30%中国血赚吧
30%对于中国学生来说余量应该充沛
然后中国ICC将如雨后春笋一般冒出来

请教，当前来说，中国人在H1B中签里，占比是15%，还是大约多少呢？

这种plan  要么要两院投票+总统签字，要么总统直接行政令然后大概率在court 打官司，真的生效估计一年半以后了