The comment comes as the time when million of Indians are struggling to obtain US work visa due to long wait time.

Ramaswamy was quoted as saying by Politico, H-1B system is “bad for everyone involved,” .

“The lottery system needs to be replaced by actual meritocratic admission. It’s a form of indentured servitude that only accrues to the benefit of the company that sponsored an H-1B immigrant. I’ll gut it,” he said in a statement, adding that the US needs to eliminate chain-based migration.

“The people who come as family members are not the meritocratic immigrants who make skills-based contributions to this country.”

Ramaswamy himself has used the visa programme 29 times. From 2018 through 2023, US Citizenship and Immigration Services approved 29 applications for Ramaswamy’s former company, Roivant Sciences, to hire employees under H-1B visas.

H1B visa woes in India

The H-1B visa, the much-sought-after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

Every year, the US gives 65,000 H-1B visas which are open to all and 20,000 to those with advanced US degrees. Since, many applicants come from India and China, currently their is a huge backlog