Ignoring Indian concerns, Obama signs visa fee hike bill -13/08/2010

13/08/2010
Ignoring Indian concerns, Obama signs visa fee hike bill

Washington: Unmindful of India and corporate America's concerns, President Barack Obama signed into law a legislation to secure the US-Mexico border with $600 million raised by hiking work visa fees. "Today's action by Congress answers my call to bolster the essential work of federal law enforcement officials and improve their ability to partner with state, local and tribal law enforcement" to stop the flow of undocumented immigrants, Obama said after the final passage of the bill.



The bill, he said, also "will make an important difference as my administration continues to work with Congress toward bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform to secure our borders and restore responsibility and accountability to our broken immigration system."

The Indian IT industry is one wronged lot now and will soon take up with the US Administration and the Congress the impact of the imminent hike in visa fee on its on-site engineers deployed in American firms.



Expressing frustration over the profound lack of understanding in the US Congress of the contribution by the Indian IT firms to the American economy through innovation and job creation, Nasscom president Som Mittal said the revised fee may discourage some firms from hiring talent needed to expand and create more jobs. "The US government has a legitimate right to protect its borders, but foreign firms should not be asked to bear the cost of this," Mittal asserted.

Though the Indian IT industry accounts for a fraction of the US technology business, Mittal said it was shocking that US Democratic Senator Charles Schumer chose to blame the Indian firms for all generic issues such as growing unemployment, lower wages and students not taking up technology education.



"It is also disheartening that lack of interest for American students to go in for technology education is being linked to this," Mittal pointed out. The H-1B visa applied by Indian firms is related to the US employment scenario. In 2009, the top 10 Indian companies filed for only 4,555 visas, a mere six percent of the total visas issued. Noting that the bill and Schumer's comments were election rhetoric and based on a flawed logic that was discriminatory, Mittal regretted that the senator chose to ignore facts and the role the Indian IT industry played in enhancing the US business competitiveness.



"The Indian industry has added significantly to the US competitiveness and its professionals have been good citizens, contributing to social security, local taxes, creating local employment, and contributing to the community," Mittal noted. Mittal also hinted that the law would impact the pace and level of cooperation between India and the US at the government and business levels.

But the State Department, which had Wednesday suggested that the Obama administration had initiated a dialogue with lawmakers, business and within the government about what many see as "discriminatory" US legislation that would largely hit Indian companies, maintained it was still talking to lawmakers.

"Well, we'll continue to work with Congress, I think, on this," spokesman Mark Toner that the Congress had already passed the measure which the US-India Business Council, representing 300 top US firms doing business with India, has warned could hurt burgeoning India-US economic ties. The bill includes money for 1,500 new border personnel, a pair of unmanned drones and military-style bases along the border.



The measure's $ 600 million tag would be paid for mostly by hiking visa fees on what the measure's backers called a handful of foreign firms that "exploit" US visa programme to improperly import workers to the United States. A summary of the bill named Indian firms Wipro, Tata, Infosys and Satyam, which send thousands of employees each year to the United States to work at their clients' locations as technicians and engineers.



The legislation raises the fees on H-1B visas for companies who have more than 50% of their employees on such visas for highly skilled professionals from $320 to $2,320. Similarly the fee on L visas given to multi-national transferees is hiked from $320 to $2,570. The Senate briefly suspended its six-week summer break to give final approval to the border security bill on Thursday in response to Obama's request for reinforcements on the Southwest border by passing the House version of the bill by "unanimous consent" with just two lawmakers present.



Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, a lead sponsor of the measure who had branded Indian IT major Infosys as a "chop shop" during the senate debate, offered up the bill, and Democratic Senator Benjamin Cardin gavelled it approved. Later Senate Democrats and labour unions also released statements claiming the measure nullifies Republican arguments that they can't consider a comprehensive immigration reform bill until Congress addresses security along the US-Mexico border.

Source: Agencies