A scare has been caused by the Trump Administration among Indian techies there by an abrupt announcement of a sharp hike in visa fee for H-IB visa to the order of $1 lakh. The worry has been dissipated to an extent by now with a clarification from the White House that this rule would be limited to new visas for techies–a one-time fee for new arrivals–and not for renewal of the existing visas. The original announcement by the US commerce secretary on Friday was that an annual fee of $1lakh would apply to new visas as well as for renewals –would have been a huge financial strain for the companies that hire staff largely from abroad. While the order applied to techies from all countries entering the US, its lethal impact would be on Indians as they form over 70 per cent of such visa holders there, while those from China etc., are much lesser in numbers.
The clarification by the White House, preceded by similar hints from the Trump administration a day ago, served to cool the minds of the techies and their families. The Trump administration now admits that the techies from abroad working in the US have brought significant gains to the US economy. While Indian techies who are already in the US might heave a sigh of relief, the order will have far-reaching implications. The rate of the present flow of techies from countries like India to the US would likely be curtailed in future in view of the hefty hike in the visa fee. On the other hand, for IT firms, their work in the US needs to be executed without interruption. If hiring faces odds, more outsourcing is the way out as the US has less local talent to fill the gap. This too could be an advantage for India, which has a strong IT sector. Recent entrants like China, Vietnam and the Philippines, and also their new army of techies, are also beneficiaries of the American IT boom. The US annually issues over two lakh H-IB visas.
What started in the 1990s in trickles – the flow of qualified IT professionals from here to the US with promises of good salaries and better life there, have over the next three decades grown into a huge opportunity for them. Simultaneously, India – specially the IT-savvy states – saw a huge growth of their IT sector. This benefited the nation by way of a swelling of foreign exchange reserves. States like Karnataka and Telangana are recording their main budgeted revenue from this sector, mostly linked to software exports to the US. While several states are now engaged in this pursuit, the sector as a whole is still gripped by a sense of fear over the vehemence of the Trump outreach. The visa fee hike may or may not have anything to do with the present strain in diplomatic and other relations between the Trump Administration and India. Indian techies in the US are temporarily relieved, but their sense of insecurity has heightened, what with Trump’s impetuous decisions.
