Rejection of visas [to Indian software engineers going to US] is a political issue and the Government has to handle it as ‘our citizens' are denied visas, said Mr Som Mittal, President, Nasscom.

“We think it is a trade barrier that is being created. The Government also made this very clear. It is a matter of concern because it creates uncertainty for our companies,” he told Business Line last week on the sidelines of the two-day Nasscom Summit HR held here.

A company may commit its client that within a week a few engineers will be in the US but could not be sure what the US will do in terms of rejection. The impact of rejection will actually be on the US economy because when Indians go there they contribute to the local schools, local society and they are large spenders there. However, they do not get social security.

“We pay taxes, and get nothing out of it. Long term, we will reduce our dependence on the US,” he said.

The US says nearly 50 per cent of visas are issued to Indians but they are giving to get things done out of us. “Our youngest and the brightest have gone there. It is benefitting the US. We are not going and taking away jobs but generating employment there,” said Mr Mittal.

Visa is a complex issue even as 30-40 per cent of denial is at the application stage. “We are not stupid. We pay thousands of dollars not to get a rejection,” he said.

Interpretation issue

The US visa is a 20-year-old programme when the services then were not globalised. India has three visas – tourist, business and employment. However, in the US, one can use the B1 for business; tourism or work but it is all based on the interpretation of the individual both at the Embassy level and at the port of entry in the US.

For example, says Mr Mittal, if a consultant or an engineer from the US comes to India on a business visa and installs a machine, he is also working here. Is this cost of hiring him not built in to the machine cost, and pay for his service? If one says the person is employed in India, is it not an issue of interpretation? That's the argument we are having with the US, said Mr Mittal.

“It is an interpretation issue. They have realised that our business is complex. We have given them certain criteria that the officer can use to judge whether the knowledge is specialised or not based on training, education and experience,” he said.

Misuse

Indian companies have increased their hiring from local community in areas such as sales, domain experts and solution architect. But the fact is that the US is going through the crisis of technical skills.

On the claims in the US that visas are being misused by Indian companies, Mr Mittal said the visa issue has always been co-related in the US for job loss. Unable to tackle job loss, the US has landed up saying visas are being misused by Indian companies.

This is not the first time the US is saying something on the visa. In 2003-04, it was anti-outsourcing; then came a phase when people there said there should not be any H1 visa, and then there was a cap on it. In fact, in the first week the entire 65,000 visas were used. That became a big issue.

Positive development

However, in a positive development last week there was a Congressional hearing that dealt with the issue of misuse but there was other topic such as how H1 and L1 visas have helped the US, and how it was a good scheme. “This [the positive view] was the US people saying,” Mr Mittal said.

They also pitched for increase in the number of visas issued to 1,95,000 from 65,000. Further, whatever was the backlog and not used in the past should be reinstated as an additional capacity. They also spoke about changing the Green Card.

The good news is that business is good. Business has to grow. The problem will be resolved as companies such as Microsoft have been pressing for the visa relaxation.

Nasscom's attention

Mr Mittal said US protection is an operating issue. Nasscom is spending more time than before in paying a lot of attention to the domestic market, including government, small and medium enterprises bringing them up and get innovation going. These two are the most forward looking things that Nasscom is spending its time on.

On the Unique Identification Authority of India programme, Mr Mittal said it is likely to change the way the government will function. The UID itself will offer huge business for IT vendors as it is an authentication platform even as large number of applications will come in – that will be outside the government but will use UID.

Nasscom is speaking to UID Authority because of the need to develop an ecosystem. Just like Microsoft or Oracle help companies develop products on their platform, the UID should help develop products and solutions on its platform. The more applications they run, the more use of UID will be.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW