Congressional committee votes to increase minimum salary of H-1B visa holders

In US, a key Congressional committee has voted to pass a legislation that proposes to increase the minimum salary of H-1B visa holders from 60 thousand to 90 thousand US Dollars and imposes a number of restriction on the work visa popular among IT professionals from India. 

The Protect and Grow American Jobs Act (HR 170) was passed by the House Judiciary Committee yesterday. The bill now heads to the full House for necessary action. A similar version of the bill needs to be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to the White House for the US President Donald Trump to



be signed into law.

The bill prohibits H-1B dependent employers from replacing American workers with H-1B employees. It also lengthens the no-layoff policy for H-1B dependent employers and their client companies for as long an H-1B employee works at the company, which means they cannot layoff equivalent US workers. 

For H-1B dependent employers to be exempted from the requirement that US workers be recruited first, the Protect and Grow American Jobs Act dramatically increases the salary requirements for H-1B workers.