India Condemns Vance's H-1B Remarks as 70% of 2025 Beneficiaries Were Indian-Born
Updated
Updated · CNBC · Oct 9
India Condemns Vance's H-1B Remarks as 70% of 2025 Beneficiaries Were Indian-Born
3 articles · Updated · CNBC · Oct 9
Summary
India's foreign ministry called J.D. Vance's description of Indian workers as "foreign indentured servants" deeply offensive, saying the phrase carried painful colonial connotations and mischaracterized skilled professionals in the U.S.
The rebuke followed a U.S. Labor Department move to suspend Microsoft, Adobe and major Indian IT firms from the Permanent Labor Certification program, blocking new green-card applications for employees on H-1B visas.
Around 70% of H-1B beneficiaries in 2025 were born in India, making the issue especially sensitive even as New Delhi said existing visas and dependents' status would not be affected.
NASSCOM and Tata Consultancy Services pushed back on the implied reliance on H-1Bs, saying Indian tech firms have expanded U.S. hiring; TCS said its H-1B applications were in single digits over the past two years and it plans 15,000 U.S. hires in five years.
The clash adds strain to a key labor-mobility channel between the two countries after a federal judge in June blocked Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee.