The Hindu : Business : Nasscom to press for more H1B visas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006

Business

Business

Nasscom to press for more H1B visas

Special Correspondent

Market forces should decide the cap

BANGALORE: India's booming IT industry will pitch for expanding the number of H1-B (non-immigrant) visas and a mechanism to refund social security taxes paid by Indian professionals in the US during the visit of President George W Bush here early next month.

India's IT industry has been facing troubles over the low number of H1-B visas (work permits) issued by the U.S. which is now capped at 65,000. Indian IT professionals are a major user of the visa.

"The 65,000 cap is far too low. It is something we share completely with U.S. corporations who are equally concerned. Indications are that the U.S. administration has understood this. Hopefully, they will do something. Some moves are afoot. We hope they will work," Kiran Karnik, President, National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) told reporters during the second Sino-India Software Industry Cooperation Summit here on Tuesday.

The U.S. had increased the H1B visa cap to 1,95,000 during the peak of the tech boom but scaled it down following a slowdown in the early 2000s.

`Let market decide'

Mr. Karnik said market forces should decide the cap. "We have a concern not only in the cap but also speed. H1-B visa takes far too long," he said.

Nasscom, he said, was expecting the forthcoming Union Budget to unveil certain "proactive and substantial" steps to give a push to the education and infrastructure sectors.

"Broader issues which concern us and affect the growth of the industry are education and infrastructure. In both these areas, we would like to see the budget doing something proactive and substantial," he said.

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