Hyderabad: Prospective grooms from US have lost their charm'

Hyderabad: US President Donald Trump’s new restriction on H1B visas has hit the matrimonial market in India in a big way.

Working as a software professional in the US on an H1B visa was a great qualification for a potential grooms in the Telugu states; parents sought out such matches for their daughters.

Parents are now on the lookout for software professionals settled in Hyderabad. Matrimonial websites and organisations that specialised in NRI matches have seen a 50 per cent drop in applications for grooms with the once coveted qualification of working in the US.

Mr Mohammad Muzaffar Sharif of the Tamanna Marriage Bureau confirmed that parents are “rejecting software professionals in the US on H1B and demanding either green card holders or H1B holders with skills that meet the requirements of the US government.”

Ms K Vijaya, who represents a prominent matrimonial website operating from Hyderabad, agreed that the demand had dropped. “No one is showing interest in NRI marriages. There are many reasons for this but the major is the H1B issue,” she said.

Even matches fixed  earlier seem to be at risk. President of the NRI Parents’ Association M. Rajkumar, said that parents who have scheduled the marriages of their daughters for this summer with techies working in the US have postponed the wedding awaiting further developments.

“Due to the reduction in the Optional Practical Training Period from three years to one year by the US government, nearly 10,000 professionals working in America and waiting for H1B will come back to India by the end of this financial year. Suspending the premier H1B visa for six months and no new H1Bs being issued for eight months makes the future of the professionals uncertain,” he said.

Besides the H1B visa issue, he said that racist attacks on Indians in the US have caused many parents to change their minds about the desirability of an NRI match. Most parents of brides are now turning to well-settled grooms locally.