President Barack Obama has said that the US will make it easier for foreign companies to bring corporate executives into the country through the L1B work visa category, in a move that could benefit the $146-billion Indian IT industry.

The L-1B visa is a non-immigration visa issued for intra-company employee transfers and valid for five years. The top 20 Indian IT companies have more staffers on L-1B visas than in the H-1B category. While both are temporary work visas, the L-1B visa also allows spouses to work.

In his address to the SelectUSA Summit on Monday, Obama said: “I’m pleased to announce a new action to make it easier for global companies who are present here today to launch and invest in the US. My administration is going to reform the L-1B visa category, which allows corporations to temporarily move workers from a foreign office to a US office in a faster, simpler way.”

While details of Obama’s ‘new action’ are awaited, Indian IT services companies hope that the entire process of securing an L-1B visa will become smoother.

“Obama recognises the fact that global talent is required in the world’s largest economy. We will first need to look at the guidance, which should come out in the next few days, to see what it has in store for the IT industry,” said Shivendra Singh, Vice-President, Global Trade Development, Nasscom. He added that the visa application rejection rate for Indian nationals in the L-1B category is over 50 per cent.

A 2014 study by the National Foundation for American Policy suggested that Indian nationals have been the worst hit when it comes to denial of L-1B visas.

BVR Mohan Reddy, Executive Chairman of Cyient, said: “We welcome the statement by President Obama… However we will wait for the details to see if changes are done for all types of firms and India-centric services firms are not discriminated against.”

Over the past few years Indian IT companies have voiced concerns that they are not getting US work visas for employees because of increasing protectionism.

“Easing of L-1B norms will give a major boost to dual-shore outsourcing projects as L-1B visas are cheaper and faster (in processing) than H-1B visas,” said Ganesh Natarajan, Vice-Chairman and CEO, Zensar Technologies.

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