The US Congress is all set to target Indian IT firms once again by imposing an additional $4,000 to $4,500 payment for each H-1B and l-1 visa application used by them to bring skilled professionals for their US operations.
As part of a $1.1 trillion bipartisan spending bill that the Congress is set to pass on Friday, the new 10-year provision will effectively double an earlier discriminatory provisions of $2,000 on the IT firms that lapsed on September 30.
The provision is so worded as to target Indian IT firms which have been using the bulk of H-1B and l1 visas for their US operations. The special fee applies only to firms of at least 50 employees that have at least 50 per cent of their employees on H-1B or l-1 visas.
American companies using these visas will not be affected as the number of their foreign employees is only a small proportion of the total workforce.
Up to $1 billion in proceeds from the hefty impost will go to fund a health care scheme for first responders of the 9/11 tragedy, with the balance proposed to be used for implementing a biometric entry and exit data system.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi promptly took up the IT industry’s concerns with President Barack Obama, who had called him on Wednesday to thank him “for his vision and leadership in achieving the historic climate agreement in Paris on December 12”.
While a brief White House statement confined itself to the climate issue, a statement from the PMO said: “The Prime Minister shared with President Obama the concerns of the Indian IT industry and professionals on the proposed legislation in the US Congress relating to H1B and l1 visas.”
The US Congress had in 2010 slapped a $2,000 special fee on the IT firms using H-1B, l-1 visas to generate funds for border policing. All efforts of the Indian government and the firms to reverse the discriminatory provision were futile and the provision continued for the stipulated five years – till September 30 this year. This impost, according to Nasscom, raised $70 to 80 million annually for the US.
The new Bill stipulates that the fee of $4,000 for H-1B visas and $4,500 for l-1 visas will be valid for 10 years – up to September 30, 2025.
Apart from this punitive measure, Indian IT firms and professionals could be up against more visa woes in the coming months as US lawmakers are moving one legislation after another to make the provisions stringent in their bid to protect American jobs in the run-up to the 2016 presidential and Congressional elections.
A Bill, recently moved in the Senate, proposes to cut the annual number of H-1B visas from 85,000 to 70,000.