India to soon raise visa curbs issue with the US

Concerned over the adverse impact of the recent US visa restrictions on Indian companies, New Delhi will shortly take up this issue with Washington.

These issues, along with the long pending demand of a Totalisation Agreement, will be taken up during the US visit of the Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Anand Sharma, next week when he will meet leaders, including the US Trade Representative, Mr Ron Kirk, official sources in the Commerce and Industry Ministry told Business Line .

The sources said they have already received representations from the IT industry, which has been troubled by the steep visa fee hike, instances of visa rejections, delays and excessive requests for evidence during application scrutiny.

Mr Sharma had on earlier occasions also raised these issues with the US authorities. He had also said that the absence of a Totalisation Agreement is already burdening the Indian software industry as they are now required to pay over $1 billion annually to the US Government in the form of social security, with no benefit or prospect of refund.

Though India had earlier threatened to drag the US to the WTO over the visa restrictions, the sources said New Delhi will try its best to resolve the issue bilaterally.

“The industry continues to face challenges on visa rejections or selective application of visa rules. So it will be really helpful if these are taken up and resolved,” Mr Ameet Nivsarkar, Vice-President of industry body Nasscom, told Business Line .

In August last year, the US passed “Border Security Bill” with provisions for $2,000 hike in H-1B visa application fee.

Earlier this year, a CLSA report had flagged the doubling of rejection rates for H-1B and L-1 visas over the past months.

“Checks indicate that H-1B/L-1 visa rejection rates have doubled from 4 per cent to 8 per cent for larger companies with even higher rejection rates for smaller companies…While the near-term impact for Indian tech players could be lost revenue and higher sub-contracting costs, medium/long-term impact could be in the form of higher onsite delivery costs and lower competitiveness in select cases,” CLSA had then said.

Moreover, the Infosys Chairman, Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, had also recently expressed unhappiness over the subpoena by a grand jury in the US on the B-1 visa issue.

The industry is also concerned about the proposed Bill called Immigration Driving Entrepreneurship in America (IDEA). The proposed legislation seeks to issue green cards to foreign entrepreneurs setting up new businesses, but at the same time is restrictive on the use of H-1B visas.