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The Visa issue

The H1B and L1 Visa issue - the gathering storm !
The introduction of the H1B and L1 Visa reforms bill in the US Senate by Assistant Majority Leader Democrat Dick Durbin and Republican Charles Grassley has caused the predictable shock wave to spread across the Indian outsourcing industry. The consolation is that this is not an unexpected development and in many meetings with the staffers of the Senators in Washington DC and a personal chat with Senator Grassley in March, the imminent introduction of the bill was never in doubt. It is more the implications of its contents and the likelihood of its successful passage that is creating murmurs in IT Boardrooms today.
The ramifications of this bill becoming law are obvious. The same Senators in the previous Congress had introduced a bill seeking to limit the number of H1B visas which are intended primarily to augment US resources with highly skilled foreign workers. The fact that it did not go through is as much due to the Indian industry’s own efforts as the opposition it faced from the American technology sector which relies on manpower from all over the world for its own needs. This time however the addition of the L1 visa in its scope which is primarily a visa used for intra company transfer between locations and the suggestion of a 50:50 clause which would prohibit any additional visas to firms that already have over fifty percent of their staff in the US as H1B or L1 Visa holders threaten to put a spanner in the works of only the Indian firms since the American firms would not have to restructure their workforce to meet a fifty percent condition.
The additional problem this time around is the level of unemployment in the US and the general negative sentiment in the country. The facts of course are that last year less than 12,000 visas were issued to Indian companies which is less than 0.01% of the total emplyment of the US. AllIndian IT professionals have added much more value than could ever be imagined and will continue to do so. It would be a pity if protectionism throws a spanner into the works - what do you think?
Ganesh