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There could be bad news for Indian knowledge workers from Bills proposed in the US on H1-B visas.
Called H1-B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2013 and proposed by Senator Chuck Grassley, the Bill proposes to deny skilled foreign worker visas to international firms operating in the US.
The Bill aims to deny visas to firms with more than 50 employees and that have 50 per cent or more employees already on this kind of visa.
Besides this, at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on comprehensive immigration reform and women, Karen Panetta, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Tufts University, said that as many as 8 out of 10 visas used by offshore outsourcing firms are held by males, which aggravated the visa issue.
These concerns come at a time when unemployment in the US in all sectors continues to be high and, according to industry watchers, offshore firms use half the 65,000 visas currently issued under this category.
Interestingly, reports are that under a Senate immigration plan there are plans to give permanent citizenship to students graduating from US universities in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. This move will help individuals rather than IT companies that rely on H1-B visas to work on client locations.
“Earlier, students graduating out of American universities could not find jobs as they were taken away by offshore service providers who had employees on H1-B visas,” said Pradeep Mukherji, President and Managing Partner, Avasant India. While this is good news for students, it is a cause for concern for India-based IT companies. “Once this Bill goes through, talented workers from India will find it almost impossible to get to the US,” said an immigration lawyer who requested anonymity.
Terming these ‘reform’ efforts as nothing new, none of the top Indian IT majors Business Line spoke to wanted to comment. In April 2009, Grassley and Dick Durbin moved a legislation to prohibit companies with more than 50 per cent of their workforce using H1-B and L-1 visas under the Employ American Workers Act, which did not get passed in the US Senate. “We have barely used the visas that were issued last year and are looking at hiring abroad,” said an executive in a top outsourcing firm.
> venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in
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