A US prosecutor who successfully investigated a precedent-setting work visa fraud case against Infosys, resulting in the Indian IT giant paying a whopping $34 million in fine, has been recognised by Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Charles Johnson for his work.
All major Indian IT services providers are keenly watching US President Donald Trump's potential actions on immigration law. Ayan Pramanik reports.
Panagariya also pointed out that COVID-19 pandemic may lead to integration of global labour market.
B1 visas are essentially short-term visas for business travellers, which allow a person to stay for six months to a year.
The Durbin-Grassley Bill might have fallen through but large Indian information technology service providers are taking no more chance of being seen as job snatchers in the US.
According to several industry sources in the know, expenses towards deploying contractual staffer, which used to account 10 per cent of the overall billable employee cost at IT firms, has fallen to around 3 per cent. IT firms typically use the contractual workers from staffing solutions providers or subcontractors.
In her lawsuit, American national Tami Sulzberg alleges that at least 90 per cent of the US workforce of San Jose-based Happiest Minds, whose headquarters is in Bangalore, are South Asians, primarily from India.
US Chamber of Commerce official says the pattern of visa denials is quite clear.
Chidambaram expressed India's discomfort on the immigration issue
Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar discusses the ramifications of Trump's 'Buy American-hire American' agenda with Raghu Krishnan.
Infosys may have put the visa misuse investigations behind it through a civil settlement with the US authorities, but experts believe that the episode might drag its other peers under the scanner.
China and Mexico seem to be the target of Donald Trump's campaign and his response to get jobs back to America
The broader NSE Nifty index too finished lower by 4.80 points, or 0.05 per cent, at 10,632.20.
The Obama administration, responding to India's angst over the sharp hike in H-1B and L1 visa fees as discriminatory and anti-trade in services, has argued that India is equally discriminatory.
Vallabhaneni, founder and chief executive officer, Luminix, had to wait for 12 years before getting a Green Card.
The StartUp Visa Act of 2011 will allow an immigrant entrepreneur to receive a two-year visa if he or she can show that a qualified US investor is willing to invest in the immigrant's start-up venture.
In 2016, there were 580,000 Indians in the US as resident non-immigrant. Of these, 440,000 were temporary workers, which includes those on H-1B visas and 140,000 were students.
Indian tech firms like TCS, Wipro and Infosys have seen slower recruitment since the first quarter of 2008.
This will be exacerbated by the falling number of masters and PhD holders in science and engineering, restrictions on cross-border movement of IT professionals and the US H-1B visa programme.
Uncertainty in the economy leads to fewer offers this year.
Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma has shrugged off the recent irritants that have cropped up less than six weeks before US President Barack Obama makes his visit to India as 'transient negativity', and predicted they would 'get dissipated' soon.
PepsiCo chief raps Indian infrastructure, manpower skills as big growth obstacles.
Rao was in Boston to deliver the third Harish Mahindra Memorial Lecture at Harvard University.
Ignoring India's concerns on raising of certain category of work visa fee, the White House on Thursday said President Barack Obama would sign into law a comprehensive plan to secure the Southwest border, including $600 million in supplemental funds for enhanced border protection and law enforcement activities.
Two United States senators have sought modifications in a 9/11 compensation-related bill, seeking to extend the increase in hike on H-1B and L1 visa fees for another six years and impose excise on some foreign companies to fund free treatment of 200,000 Americans living with health problems contracted while working at the Ground Zero.
A bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the US House of Representatives to eliminate the per country cap on employment-based Green Card, a move which is likely to benefit Indian IT professionals languishing over decades of waiting for the Permanent Resident Card. The legislation was introduced by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and Congressman John Curtis. The Equal Access to green cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act, 2021 needs to be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to the White House for the president to sign it into a law. A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently.
Youngsters looking to settle abroad, especially the US, by working in the IT industry should opt for career growth within India, which offers larger growth opportunities than anywhere else in the world, Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy said.
The official spokesperson of the US Embassy, New Delhi speaks about the visa process and shares advice on studying in the US.
Indian IT firms are not losing sleep over the recent report of spike in visa denials in the L1 and H1-B visa category, as they have been dealing with high visa denial rates since the last two years.
The proposals being put forward by a coalition of powerful Democratic Senators are aimed at fixing the country's broken immigration system.
The recent hike in H-1B and L1 visa fee to raise $600 million for securing the American border with Mexico is "a bad policy" for the US and could very well "sour" its ties with India whose IT sector is affected by the move, two noted economic experts have said.
The United States is in discussion with India trying to understand the potential impact of the increase in fee of categories of H-1B and L1 visas on Indian companies.
The provisions of the border security bill, which allows massive increase in the fees on categories of H-1B and L1 visas, is discriminatory against the Indian companies, India has said and asked the United States to amend it.
The Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma, had last week written a letter to the US Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, in this regard.
The steep increase in visa fee of certain categories of H-1B and L1 visas was part of the $600 million border security bill signed by the US President Barack Obama, last week, to strengthen security along the US-Mexico border.
The US is reviewing the suggestion that the border security bill, that significantly increases visa fees of H1-B and L1 categories, was not WTO compliant, days after President Barack Obama signed it into law.
Ignoring the concerns of Corporate America and India, US President Barack Obama signed into law a new Border Security Bill proposing a steep hike in some categories of H-1B and L-1 visa fees on Friday.
The Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act was passed yesterday by a voice vote in the House of Representatives.
Nasscom representatives, on their recent visit to the US, met a large cross-section of stakeholders the US administration, elected representatives of the Congress, various associations, US headquartered companies and customer companies as well. The industry body also said that protectionist policies would only delay the recovery of the US from the ongoing recession.
Infosys as working on becoming "independent of the visa issue" as much as possible and hire more locals
