US allays India’s IT visa concerns

Amid persistent concerns in India about the US visa regime for IT professionals, Washington has promised to work with the Indian government to provide more visas and underlined that India is the recipient of more visas than any other country in the world.

Clearing the air on the doubts and concerns about visas being issued to Indians in the IT industry, US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Stefan M. Selig said, “India is the recipient of more visas than any other country in the world. 65-66% of all short-term visas that the US government issues are for Indian citizens.” He stressed that the US would continue to work with the Indian government to meet rising demand for US visas. “I think we are making a lot of progress on it”, he added.

Indian IT professionals have been hit by higher visa fees imposed after the US Border Security Act came into force. The US has yet to decide on whether to allow the act to lapse in September or reinforce it.

H1B and L1 visas are the most sought after non-immigrant visas by people across the globe who work onsite in the United States. These visas are usually issued to people with high technical skills only and the Indian IT industry sends a bulk of its employees every year onsite to the US since maximum revenues for Indian IT firms come from the US. The US had increased the fees substantially for both categories of visas and also brought about tougher restrictions for issuing these visas. The costs on these visas had substantially increased for companies, especially for those who employed more than 50 people in the US or have more than half their workforce employed on non-immigrant visas, infamously known as the 50-50 rule.

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