Washington, Aug 16 (PTI): The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has proposed changes in the procedures for hiring workers, including Indians, under the H-2B visa programme.

The USCIS wants to stop issuing H-2B visas to citizens of countries that consistently refuse or unreasonably delay repatriation of their nationals with deportation orders from the US.

Eight countries, including India, China and Iran, had been identified by lawmakers early this year as falling in this category.

The H-2B non-immigrant temporary worker programme allows US employers to bring foreigners into America to fill non-agricultural temporary jobs for which domestic workers are not available. India is one of the countries from which such workers are sourced.

The changes in rules include reducing from six months to three months the time H-2B workers must wait outside the US before they are eligible to re-obtain the status, and to crack down on recruiters who impose fees on prospective H-2B workers as a condition for an offer of employment.