In a bid to curb the protectionist measure taken by America, India will soon file a case in the WTO against the visa fee hike, complaining that Indian IT companies face discrimination with regard to their employees who are on short-term contracts in America.
According to a senior commerce ministry official, the ministry has finalised the case. “The US visa fee hike is a discriminatory move against Indian IT firms. This week, we will formally file the complaint and seek consultations under WTO,” the official told FE.
Once, the complaint is filled, the procedure of World Trade Organisation (WTO) will allow India to hold consultations with the US against the complaint. The US had raised visa fee in 2010 to fund its enhanced costs on securing border with Mexico under the Border Security Act. Since then, India has been protesting against the measure.
It is understood that the consultations allows the two parties to discuss the dispute and gives an opportunity to resolve the issue without proceeding further with litigation. After 60 days, if consultations fail, the complainant may request adjudication by the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB).
The law ? Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2010 ? has substantially increased the fees for H1B and L1 categories of visas for applicants, who employ more than 50 persons in the US or have more than 50% their employees admitted on non-immigrant visas (the 50:50 rule). “… This is prima facie discriminatory for Indian companies,” the official said.
The H1B visa fee has been increased significantly to $2,000 and L1 to $2,700. Some of the top Indian companies TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Mahindra Satyam were affected by the US action on visa fee. The US is the largest market for the Indian software exports.
However, the large American high-tech corporations, which may bring higher numbers of skilled immigrants into the US would not be affected, since vast majority of their workforce is of Americans.
