The Hindu Business Line : US visas tough to get, finds survey — `Cos want Govt to take up the issue at WTO negotiations'

INDIAN IT and BPO professionals find the US the most difficult country to get visas for, while China and Japan grant them the most friendly entry, an Assocham Business Barometer (ABB) Survey has revealed.

Leading countries in Western Europe are rated as having the second most difficult visa rules for the entry of professionals despite the fact that they are short of talent in IT and software services, the survey says.

Over 90 per cent of the professionals interviewed in the survey across different BPO/IT hubs including Gurgaon, Chennai and Bangalore, singled out the US as the most difficult country to grant them visa even as they do bulk of their offshore business with American firms.

About 50 per cent of the respondents found Western Europe as the other difficult visa administrators.

Over 60 per cent of the BPO and IT companies find that the visa restrictions act as the biggest obstacle to their business, which could grow at an even better pace if the entry barriers were eased, the survey says.

India's IT and ITES exports, most of which went to the US, were $17.5 billion in 2004-05 and are growing at over 30 per cent per annum.

The immigration rules and policies and security concerns are most often the reasons presented for denying entry to Indian programmers and software developers who need temporary visas ranging from a month to six months.

The security concerns and the resultant restrictions on visa grant have increased dramatically after the 9/11 attack on the US, most of the respondents said.

The other reasons stated for not granting visas are the Economic Needs Test and Labour Market Test.

Over 87 per cent of the BPO and IT executives wanted India to forcefully take up the issue of visa restrictions at the World Trade Organisation negotiations under the General Agreements on Trade in Services.

They wanted Indian negotiators to build strong alliances among the provider countries of services to work the pressure on developed countries such as the US.

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