India to ask US for more H-1B visas

NEW DELHI: India is likely to ask the United States to raise the cap on visas for skilled workers at the bilateral trade forum meeting to be held

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in New Delhi later this month, a government official told ET. India may also push for a special mechanism for Indian professionals travelling to the US for short-term assignments arising out of contractual obligations.

The issue of a more liberal and simple US visa regime for professionals will be high on India’s agenda at the bilateral meeting to be chaired by Indian commerce minister Anand Sharma and the US trade representative Ron Kirk, the official said.

H-1B visas, which are non-immigrant US visas for skilled professionals, given for up to six years, are highly popular with Indian IT companies such as Infosys, Wipro, TCS and Satyam, which usually corner a big chunk of such visas issued by the US. The subsidiaries of these companies in the US usually employ H-1B visa professionals to deliver services at customer’s location.

“The number of world-wide H-1B visas issued to professionals was reduced by more than half to 65,000 per year about two years back. This has affected the functioning of Indian companies in the US, especially ones in the IT sector,” the official said. He added that India was keen on taking up with the new US government the issue of a possible increase in the cap on such visas. Although, this year, the entire quota of 65,000 H-1B visas has not yet been utilised because of the on-going global economic slow down, the official pointed out that it was a temporary phase and the demand for US work visas would soar the moment the global economy began to look up.
India is also likely to discuss with the US delegation the legislation introduced by two US Senators seeking a restriction on the number of H-1B visas that can be issued to a company so as to bring about a balance between the number of foreigners and Americans employed by it.

This will again impact Indian IT companies in the US which mostly use Indian software professionals to deliver services there.

Commerce and industry minister Mr Sharma has already raised these issues with Mr Kirk in his recent visit to Washington DC. India has been raising the issue of a more liberal visa regime and a higher number of work visas also multilaterally at the World Trade Organisation.