93% of H4 visas issued by US belong to Indians: Jaishankar

New Delhi : External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday told the Parliament that India is continuously trying to convince the US that tapping into the Indian talent is in the mutual benefit of both the nations.

“Issuing visas is the sovereign prerogative of other states. But at the same time, there are very important economic and business and social interests…We are constantly in touch with the American system, the American government, members of the Congress to convince them that tapping into the Indian talent pool is for our mutual benefit,” Dr Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha.

He said India has been successful in convincing the US to a “large extent as actually if you look at the numbers, the number of HI-B visas has been going up in the last few years even though the total rejection rate has been coming down”.

During the Question Hour, he was posted with a question – if any of the Indian IT companies have been disqualified for H-IB visa by the US? Dr. Jaishankar said none of the Indian company has been disqualified but the number of visas issued has been decreased.

“With regard to seven major Indian employers, there is no disqualification on any of them. The number of visas for which they have applied to has come down in the last two years. Denial rates have also gone up,” he said.

As regards to the seven companies, they got 3,828 new visas and 15,230 renewals of HI-B visas last year, he said.

“Indians today account for 93 per cent of the total number of visas issued in this category. There was some controversy whether this programme will be continued but right now it is continuing…There is a court order to the effect that it should be continued but the Trump administration has indicated that it may review it,” he said.