An Indo –US Business Group has urged for the annual increase in the number of work visas that are issued to the overseas technology professionals. They also said that restricting the H –1B visas to a limit would put an adverse effect on the competitiveness of US companies worldwide.
Mukesh Aghi, President of US-India Business Council (USIBC) said, "One of the areas where the US has to look at is H-1B. How do you expand that? By limiting the numbers (of H-1B visas), it does have an impact on the US companies. By making it expensive, it does have an impact on US companies.”
Annually, around 60,000 H- 1B visas and an additional 20,000 visas are granted to overseas professionals, who have pursued higher education from one of the US Universities, recognized under US government’s existing laws. According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), they are receiving an excess number of applications, thus forcing them to select the applicants through a computerized draw of applications.
Many top most US technology giants like Microsoft, Facebook and Google have also called in to increase the limit of H-1B visas as many Indian IT professionals apply for H -1B visas.
Politicians like Donald Trump, a Real Estate Industrialist based in New York and presently leading the Republican presidential polls recommended an increase in salary for H-1B visa applicants; he also came up with other recommendations that would definitely make tougher for US companies to hire a foreign professional.
“Politicians make proposals just to attract votes. Our position is that Indian workers who come on H-1B visa do bring efficiency and competency to US companies," said Aghi, President of USIBC, who previously a Board Member and CEO of Larsen and Toubro InfoTech. "We support H-1B and we would like to expand it," he said. Answering to the question about Trump’s proposal of increasing the salary of visa applicants, Mr.Aghi said that no one can give order to the companies about the salaries they need to pay to their employees. "Because it is not business of the government to be in business,” he added.
"If India does the same thing that you got to pay minimum salary to US people coming to India then it does have an impact on US cost structure. It can be reciprocal. Not just with India, it can be with any other country," he mentioned.
