Outgoing US President Donald Trump's political campaign for his second presidential term may have been in full swing late last year, but that didn't stop him from continuing his relentless onslaught[1] against the H1-B visa, which had been comprehensively consumed by Indian IT companies until now.
The recent rules[2], as part of an overall effort to curb nearly all forms of immigration, have come as a further headache to US companies desperate for global talent at affordable prices -- especially in hot areas like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics which are now beginning to see applications across a wide spectrum of industries and companies.
In the latest round of rules, companies will have to shell out salaries for entry-level H-1B workers that are in the 45th percentile of wages for that profession versus the prior level of 17th percentile. Higher-skilled workers would receive salaries in the 95th percentile from the 67th. In other words, there are pretty huge pay bumps across the board.
Another potentially more constricting rule[3] accompanying Trump's H-1B changes is that foreign workers are now required to have the exact qualifications for jobs advertised, rather than disparate or related degrees which, as you can imagine, are completely removed from the diverse skillsets required in technology today.
In other words, a candidate with a degree in computer science, applied economics, or statistics would not be able to apply for a job in the data sciences[4] field as they would not have a degree in "data sciences", which is not a widely marketed degree.
Let's say that what this candidate does have, however, is a decade of senior-level experience working in data sciences or a closely related field. They still won't make the grade because