Indian Tech Industry Lobbies Against Further Visa Fees

[babylonsister]

Indian Tech Industry Lobbies Against Further Visa Fees
By Elise Foley 8/23/10 2:00 PM


Indian information technology companies are up in arms about a visa fee increase imposed by the $600 million border security bill signed into law this month. The fee hikes affect companies that employ more than 50 workers and use H-1B visas to hire more than half of their workforce.

The visa hikes likely cannot be reversed, so Indian industry groups are attempting to prevent additional fee increases in the future, National Journal reported today:

“The bigger concern for us is whether this will happen more,” said Som Mittal, president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies, the Indian chamber of commerce. “Clearly this recent incident is poorly timed, in my opinion, and has left a sour taste.”

Mittal said he expects the fee increases to be brought up when Obama makes a historic visit to India in November focused on how to continue improving U.S.-India business relationships. <...>

Somers and Mittal also challenged another claim leveled by Schumer that the hiring practices of Indian firms are taking jobs away from U.S. workers. They said the visa programs are used to hire highly skilled workers in the technology industry, which has not seen the job losses that other sectors such as construction and retail have experienced.

more...

http://washingtonindependent.com/95511/indian-tech-industry-lobbies-against-further-visa-fees

[AndyTiedye]

1. a tiny violin quartet for the indian tech industry

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[OhioChick]

2. May I join you?

:nopity:

[L0oniX]

3. Oh yea ...I really care about improving U.S.-India business relationships ...f*ck that!

[ChromeFoundry]

4. "the hiring practices of Indian firms are taking jobs away from U.S. workers."

Good for Schumer for speaking the truth!

[Hannah Bell]

5. i believe one reason is because the regs are being directly targeted at indian corps --

but someone like microsoft doesn't get the same penalty when they hire h1bs directly.