A recent pick for his office by US President-elect Donald Trump has fueled the speculations of removal of per-country cap for H1-B skilled worker visas, much to the aspirants’ delight.

Trump appointed Indian-origin Sriram Krishnan as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office.

Social media is abuzz with ‘hints’ regarding H-1B visa programme changes after Krishnan’s appointment. Along with his technical, entrepreneurial and leadership experience, Krishnan has also brought his views to the table.

In an old tweet, Krishnan wrote, “Anything to remove country caps for green cards/unlock skilled immigration would be huge”.

Endorsed by influential figures like David Sacks and Elon Musk, Krishnan’s base stands tall as they all argue for removing country-specific caps to attract and retain global talent.

In one of his tweets of early December, Krishnan also emphasised his wish to ‘allow H-1B visa holders to start companies or transition to entrepreneur visas’.

What does the per-country cap mean to Indians?

Per-country caps limit the number of green cards issued annually to individuals from any single country to 7% of the total available, which is approximately 1,40,000 for employment-based categories.

Indians, who form the largest part of the skilled technical labour applicant base in the US would no longer be subjected to country-specific quotas.

The selection would solely rely on the ‘efficiency’ of talent and merit-based.

While this move may benefit Indians by reducing backlogs, Americans are criticising the consequences.

“Americans must reclaim their tech jobs and livelihood from these creeping Indians in the millions. They come here to build careers and jobs and send the money back to India. They use the US as a temporary hostel for making cash while contributing nothing to society,” a user commented.

“Not America First at all,” said another.

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Trump appoints Indian-American Sriram Krishnan as policy advisor on AI