India's external affairs ministry said JD Vance's description of H-1B workers as indentured servants was deeply offensive, and said the PERM freeze does not by itself cancel existing H-1B visas.
India's Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday that US Vice President JD Vance's description of H-1B workers as indentured servants was deeply offensive and carried colonial connotations, CNBC-TV18 reported. The comment came a day after the United States suspended named technology and outsourcing firms from the Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, process.
Mint quoted the ministry as saying it was aware of the Labor Department decision on PERM for certain companies, and that PERM is distinct from the H-1B visa programme. The ministry said the suspension does not by itself affect the validity of existing H-1B visas or the status of holders and their dependents, though it could affect the green-card process for eligible employees of the named companies.
Vance said on Thursday that outsourcing firms were bringing in workers to undercut American wages. Mint quoted him saying people brought in by foreign outsourcing firms were making less than American citizens in similar positions, and using the phrase indentured servants.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the government would not accept new or process pending PERM applications involving Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini, and that Microsoft and Adobe were also suspended. Friday's Indian statement is the diplomatic response and the clarification on existing visas.
No joint US-India meeting on the freeze was announced in these reports. The practical effect the ministry described is on permanent-residency processing, not an automatic cancellation of current H-1B status.
People Sentiments Negative
- The external affairs ministry called the indentured-servants wording deeply offensive.
- The ministry said the PERM suspension does not by itself void existing H-1B visas.
- Vance said outsourcing firms were using foreign workers to undercut American wages.