Indian American entrepreneur and Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has made a bold promise ahead of the US presidential election - to end the H-1B visa program if elected to power. Ramaswamy, who has called the visa program "indentured servitude," plans to replace it with a merit-based system. The H-1B visa program is highly sought-after among Indian IT professionals and allows US-based companies to hire foreign workers with specialized knowledge.

However, with only 85,000 available slots for fiscal year 2021, the program sees intense competition, with over 780,000 applications submitted. Ramaswamy's vow to "gut the lottery-based visa system" comes as he himself has used the H-1B visa program 29 times in the past for his biotech company, Roivant Sciences. Ramaswamy argues that the current system benefits only the sponsoring companies and proposes eliminating chain-based migration in favor of skill-based contributions. His stance aligns with former President Donald Trump's hardline position on H-1B visas, although Trump himself had hired foreign workers under the program. Ramaswamy's pledge has sparked a debate on the future of the H-1B visa program and its impact on the US economy.