Fearing the possibility of the proposed amendments to the US H-1B Permit scheme not doing any justice to the cause of the Indian firms, working in the US, seven MPs from India have, reportedly, travelled all the way to the US Capital, to lobby Congressmen on the all-inclusive immigration reform act presently being debated by the American Congress.

Thanks to the proposed legislation, Indian organizations will have no options except to cough-up more money to recruit the non-US manpower with the H-1B Permits even while, in certain cases, they will not be allowed to file a petition for the said permits any more. The MPs also allege that the harm inflicted on the Indian interests could be so monumental that the Indo-American relations would suffer.

The group of the Indian MPs was apparently worried on the provisions in the proposed legislation, which would allegedly swell the charges paid for the US H-1B permits by some Indian firms, and also stop completely some others from filing an application for the visa.

Proposed legislation may not do justice to Indo-US relations

The MPs claim that the proposals in the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act 2013, apart from severely hurting the US business, would also negatively impact the Indo-US relations. A group of 8 senators, nowadays famous as ‘The Gang of Eight’, tailored the proposed legislation even as it will–in case the same is passed—apparently improve every component of the American immigration structure. The provision–which worries the MPs in question–will boost the charges paid by the H-1B dependent recruiters for the said permits.

These permits are temporary by nature, and may be offered to the degree level employees to get employed in the US, in a specialty profession even while these permits have a validity period of three years in the beginning. However, these may be duly renewed for another 3-year-term. Every year, Washington DC offers 65,000 H-1B Permits to graduates, and an additional 20,000 to those having advanced degrees, like Doctorates & PhDs.

Organizations which function in the US, and which wish to usher-in manpower from abroad, may file a petition to the concerned body, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), on their workers’ behalf. Every year, the number of visa-petitions filed for the H-1B Permits far surpasses the total number of visa up for grabs even as in 2013 a staggering 100,000 submissions made their way to the USCIS—that too inside just 5 days.

Global outsourcing organizations using majority of H-1Bs

Allegedly, a sizeable section of the H-1Bs is employed by the global outsourcing groups—several of which have roots in India, such as the TCS, Tata Consulting, and Infosys. Talking about this, a concerned person observed that, much surprisingly, the leading 10 recipients of the H-1Bs in the last financial year were all offshore outsourcers even while they pocketed 40,000 of the 85,000 H-1B Permits.

Fearing the likelihood of the proposed amendments to the US H-1B Permit system harming the cause of the Indian firms, operating in the US, seven MPs from India have travelled all the way to the US Capital to lobby Congressmen on the all-inclusive immigration reform act presently being debated by the American Congress.