New visa norms will drive IT industry away from US: Nasscom

The Indian information technology industry has called the recent hike in H1-B and L1 visa fees by the US highly discriminatory, and said that if the US continues with its discriminatory policies against Indian IT firms, they will move on to new markets.

As president Barack Obama signed the border security bill into a law, Nasscom, the apex body representing the Indian software industry, proposed to create alternative business models in which new jobs can be created in India. The leading Indian IT firms also emphasised they were trying to come out with new models on how to contain the impact of fee increase.

The new law hikes H-1B and L visa fees by $ 2,000 per visa application, for any company with at least 50 employees and where the percentage of US workforce is less that 50 per cent. This is an almost 50 per cent increase over the current levels of about $2,300 to about $4,300 per application.

According to industry estimates, the hike in the visa fees to fund new measures would result in Indian IT firms having to shell out up to $250 million annually on visa costs, as on average, 70-80 per cent of the onsite workforce of Indian companies in the US is on temporary work visas.

According to Nasscom's estimates, Indian companies apply for 50,000 visas every year, including H1B and L1 visas, besides renewal of old visas.

Nasscom, which has protested against the 'discrimination' through the Indian government and various industry associations in the US, said if working in the US was becoming difficult, then the Indian IT industry would have to create new business models and bring the jobs back to India.