Pressure Raising On The US Immigration Bill From Industry Stalwarts

23 Sep 2013

The House version of the US Immigration Bill has raised the cap on H-1B visas. But, there will be an increase the cost of employees for companies as the house version created various slabs for wages. When the Bill reaches the stage of conferencing as the House and the Senate negotiate different provisions in their respective drafts and attempt to reach a common point, the industry is also concerned that some unfavorable clauses may return.

The industry is involved in a dialogue at all possible levels. Azim Premji of Wipro, wrote a letter to Indian Prime Minister Singh, saying that they want his support to seek the intervention of White House to remove the discriminatory provisions in both the House and the Senate Bills and to treat IT service providers from India on par. He said in the letter that this is in the interest of the trade relations between India and US and in keeping with the PM’s vision to raise bilateral trade from the current level of $100 billion to five times more.

According to an industry official, the US Immigration Bill was discussed when Indian Prime Minister Singh met captains of the industry recently. The government is also keeping the pressure high on its part.

India has been repeatedly raising the issue of the Bill at political and diplomatic levels. Officials told Business Standard that recently, Anand Sharma, the Indian Commerce Minister took up the matter again with Michael Froman, the US Trade Representative during a telephonic conversation.

He said immigration should not be confused with short-term flow of service delivering people. He even told his US counterpart clearly that such measures would affect the interest of the US' own industry adversely.

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