NASSCOM warns US visa limits will be 'business killer'

Washington: The head of an Indian trade group fears proposals in US Congress to limit visas for foreign high-tech workers would be a "business killer" for India's burgeoning information technology industry and would not reduce US unemployment.

Som Mittal, president of National Association of Software and Service Cos. (NASSCOM), told the Washington Times on Thursday he was concerned that pending legislation would sharply restrict the hiring of foreign workers by domestic and overseas companies operating in the US, harming rather than helping the US economy.

Two senators, Democrat Richard J Durbin and Republican Charles E Grassley have proposed legislation that would prevent any large company from hiring more foreign high-tech workers if more than half its work force already consists of visa-holding foreigners.

"It's a business killer for us," Mittal said, adding that such a move could harm US competitiveness and was not needed anyway because there are not enough Americans to fill the high-tech jobs.

The Grassley-Durbin visa reform bill was first introduced in 2007. Congress is preoccupied with health care and climate change legislation, but Mittal said he fears that elements of the visa bill could be incorporated in immigration legislation that Congress is expected to take up next year.

US technology giants argue that they need more, not fewer, foreign workers to tackle highly technical jobs.

"Sixty percent of all technology PhDs are foreign nationals," Mittal said. "[The visa requirement] could be detrimental to the US economy. You do want to retain the best and brightest."

The industry also needs the ability to make rapid changes to its work force in response to demand or new product development, he said.

Launching a new product in the United States requires the temporary infusion of technicians from the country where the product was developed, he said.

It's no different, he said, when a company such as General Electric is building power systems in India - the company will need to temporarily assign a substantial number of US technicians to India.

The Indian information technology sector--with export revenues of $47 billion--includes the software, design and back-office outsourcing industries. It is critical to US technology and financial services companies, Mittal said.