Nasscom proposes new service visa to replace H-1B to end abuse

Source: Economic Times India

31 Aug 2009, 0540 hrs IST, N Shivapriya, ET Bureau

MUMBAI: The country’s software industry body Nasscom has proposed a new category of service visas for the US to replace the controversial H-1B visa. The service visa will enable companies to send their employees to the US on work for a certain period and will not lead to immigration or permanent residency.

Nasscom has initiated dialogue with key Congressmen and industry groups, such as TechAmerica, Compete America and the US India Business Council, for the proposed change in visa. It is also encouraging a more comprehensive debate on the issue of immigration abuse rather than limiting it only to H-1B or L1 visas.

“We do not wish to encourage the abuse of visas for immigration. Our objective is to get the work done and bring back our people. There are 11,000-12,000 Indians who go to the US for work and their average stay is less than two years,” said Som Mittal, president, Nasscom. He said the service visa, along the lines of the work permit that Europe currently has for overseas workers, would help address the concerns of visa abuse.

In April this year, US senators Chuck Grassley and Dick Durban proposed a legislation to limit both H-1B and L1 visas and force firms with over 50% of their staff as H-1B and L-1 visa holders to hire US locals, sending alarm bells through the Indian IT industry. Nassscom’s move, if successful, will protect the interests of the Indian IT industry by allowing them to continue sending their employees to the US on service visas for the duration of the work. “There is a need to differentiate between matters of trade and immigration,” said Mr Mittal.



Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Nasscom-proposes-new-visa-to-replace-H-1B/articleshow/4952592.cms

---

:eyes:

having India become self sufficient, without having to skim employment from other countries. Maybe then they wouldn't have to worry less about H-1B and L-1 quotas.

I do not see any way that this would alter the abuse that is going on.

that's about all you need to know

"Free trade" in goods should also require "free trade" in services. Anything else is patently unfair.

and a protected market for IT workers. :shrug:

I think we should protect domestic labor for unfair competition, period. But most Americans disagree, loving to cite the "efficiency" and "competition" engendered by an unregulated market, so long as it's the other guy's ox which is gored in the process.

I believe that we should be importing only those things that are absolutely impossible or provably uneconomical to produce here. For example, bananas may be impossible to produce here on the scale needed, so we import them and export apples. But what can be produced here - and built according to standards that are the same as anywhere else - should be.

That means cars, software, airplanes, etc.

Same slow infrastructure that becomes apparent if you use multiple mobile platforms... New name in a feeble attempt to hide the obvious.

Like they say, "A skunk by any other name..."

The parallel being, they can axe H1B and give it a shiny new name. Won't make anything different.

And this isn't trade either. It's a migration of jobs. "Globalization" does not move jobs, it adds and expands to benefit all.

and

Single payer is so far off the table, it's in the living room?

Yup... It's now officially a madhouse.

Source: The Economic Times (India)

The country’s software industry body Nasscom has proposed a new category of service visas for the US to replace the controversial H-1B visa. The service visa will enable companies to send their employees to the US on work for a certain period and will not lead to immigration or permanent residency.

Nasscom has initiated dialogue with key Congressmen and industry groups, such as TechAmerica, Compete America and the US India Business Council, for the proposed change in visa. It is also encouraging a more comprehensive debate on the issue of immigration abuse rather than limiting it only to H-1B or L1 visas.

“We do not wish to encourage the abuse of visas for immigration. Our objective is to get the work done and bring back our people. There are 11,000-12,000 Indians who go to the US for work and their average stay is less than two years,” said Som Mittal, president, Nasscom. He said the service visa, along the lines of the work permit that Europe currently has for overseas workers, would help address the concerns of visa abuse.

Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4952592.cms

---

Interesting to find reaction from DU members.

For me, i think this is a small step in the right direction. There is no doubt that L1 & H1 programs has been abused though the intent of the program was to benefit US business edge. Reforms in this Visa program can be expected sooner rather than later.

The people you want to come here for work are the ones who want to stay. Shipping in foreign labor when those workers don't even care to stay in this country, is there a point to that other than to depress wages?

The solution to the H1-B program is to end it and replace it with nothing. There is no lack of Americans who want to do the work that H1-Bs do, and every H1-B that is admitted takes money directly from American workers in the form of lowered wages. In the IT industry it is estimated that U.S. IT workers make $16,000/year LESS than what they would make in the absence of H1-Bs.

The proper direction is to put a stop to this one-sided 'free trade' nonsense and behave in as mercantilist a manner as is necessary to achieve our economic goals.

Otherwise you're just shipping in cheap labor to work in the States. We did that before; ended the practice with the Civil War.

This will just accelerate the trend to send whole projects and IT departments offshore to India, etc.

to 'temporarily' work in the US when we're struggling with outrageously high unemployments rates for our own citizens who are already here DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.

..............we "shouldn't" need workers to fill jobs here when our "official" un-employment rate is 10%. All that this has been used for is for the benefit of employers and the detriment of lower/middle class workers. It's about fucking time in this country to employ AND educate our citizens first. Fix the God Damn education system first and MAYBE then we can talk about "guest workers". If anybody has a fucking brain, you would see why our people have a hard-on for foreign workers when they see them getting good paying jobs and living in nice expensive neighborhoods.

Oh yeah, but they won't work for $8.50 an hour.

-1%