The US-India Business Council has expressed concern on the proposals in the new immigration bill in the United States that seeks to reform the immigration legislation.

The USIBC, which represents America's top companies investing in India and global Indian companies to strengthen bilateral commercial ties.

“Our greatest concern centres on proposals that would preclude access to visas or impose unworkable visa-related restrictions and fees on a company’s ability to sponsor H-1B and L-1 visas based upon their business model or the composition of its local workforce,” Ron Somers, President of US-India Business Council, said.

The Bill is slated to be tabled in a few hours in the US Senate.

In a letter to the Senators who propose the Bill, he has asked them not to include provisions that could discriminate against a set of companies on the proposed formula 50:50 model (those applicants who have 50 or more workers and 50 per cent of those workers are on H-1B and L visas) or some other triggering ratio.

Particularly targeted by the proposed restrictions would be global IT services companies headquartered in India, which are in fact enabling American companies to remain globally competitive.

“An outright prohibition on sponsoring visas and/or stringent new restrictions coupled with higher visa fees that may only apply to the Indian IT services sector would create an uneven playing field and harm U.S.-based clients,” he said in the letter.

Such restrictions could impact US innovation, reducing local job creation, and, worse, forcing companies to move projects offshore, outside the US.

>kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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