India

Pan IIT Alumni India Urges Engineers to Return Home Amid US Visa Uncertainty

By Sneha Biswas

Pan IIT Alumni India has called on IIT graduates to return to India, arguing that the country now offers better prospects amid uncertainty over US immigration policies, including recent changes to the PERM labour certification and H‑1B visas under the Trump administration. The alumni body, which represents graduates from 23 Indian Institutes of Technology, posted a statement on X expressing concern about the US PERM programme and the treatment of skilled Indian professionals on H‑1B visas. It urged that immigration policy be applied fairly, transparently and without stigmatizing Indian professionals.

The statement noted that Indian engineers and technologists have made significant contributions to US innovation and industry. It explained that H‑1B is a temporary, employer‑sponsored visa for foreign professionals in specialised occupations, while PERM is a labour‑certification step used when sponsoring workers for employment‑based green cards. The Trump administration’s suspension of the PERM programme for eight major IT firms halts new and pending PERM applications at those firms, creating uncertainty for workers pursuing employer‑sponsored green cards, but does not automatically cancel existing H‑1B visas.

Chairman Prabhat Kumar said a visa is never a stable foundation for a career and urged Indian engineers to build and create impact at home. He added that India offers opportunities for Indian talent amid uncertainty over US immigration policies. "For over five decades, Indian engineers and technologists — many of them IIT alumni — have been among the most productive contributors to American innovation, research, and industry. To characterise them collectively as 'indentured servants' is neither accurate nor fair," the organisation added.

Earlier, India criticised the US decision to restrict a key green‑card processing programme for major tech firms, including Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Microsoft, Adobe, Capgemini and Cognizant. The Trump administration suspended the Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) programme for eight IT majors to reduce the number of foreign workers in the US and create job opportunities for Americans. The move is likely to affect Indian techies who rely on employer‑sponsored green cards for permanent residency in the US after entering the country on H‑1B visas.