Addressing a blow to Indian professionals looking for employment in the US, the Obama Administration declared supplementary measures for employing foreign experts under the H-1B visa work program making it harder for the companies getting federal bailout to appoint overseas workers.

These measures come about 10 days before the US citizenship and immigration services (USCIS) starts accepting petitions for new H-1B visas for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2009, reports agency sources.

The USCIS announced the measures to enforce the provisions of the new Employ American Workers Act (EAWA) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which prohibits hiring of H-1B visa holders by US companies that receive the federal aid money. Indian nationals account for bulk of the coveted H-1B visas.

Under this legislation any company that has received covered funding and seeks to hire new H-1B workers is considered an `H-1B dependent employer`.

All H-1B dependent employers must make additional attestations to the US Department of Labour (DOL) when filing the Labour Condition Application (LCA), the USCIS said.