Bigger India
US bill targets Indian IT companies
Fresh visa restrictions proposed by the Trump administration are set to compound the difficulties of Indian IT companies.
The concerns remain high as this bill could be significantly detrimental to our industry, because it targets visa dependent companies. Actually it only deals with a particular set of companies that account for a minority of the visas and therefore, will have no substantive benefit for the people who are sought to be protected – American jobseekers. In the US, unemployment rate among technically skilled workers is less than 2%. So it is very clear there is a shortage. If its goal was to protect American jobseekers then it should have been written in such a way that it would be applicable to all, not just Indian companies.
The argument that the bill will benefit technology companies is also not valid, because the distinction that’s made is not between technology companies and service companies. It is between visa dependent and visa non-dependent, which effectively makes it against Indian IT industry. The conditions are onerous and impractical. It imposes a huge compliance requirement which is difficult to fulfil in the ordinary course of business. Even the US Chamber of Commerce has voiced its concerns against such conditions as they set dangerous precedents.