New visa norm to aid staff tracking: US

The new visa regulations implemented by the United States could be of great help to Indian information technology firms as they try to tackle employee issues like staff poaching.

However, the reduction of H-1B visa quota by the United States has led to protests in India, admitted US consul-general George Sibley and consular services chief Sarah Nelson at a media meet in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Considered to be a lifeline for the Indian IT industry, the new H-1B visa norm, which requires the holder of the visa to come back to India and make fresh application in case if he/she switches job, is going to help Indian IT majors tackle the unlawful poaching problem.

"It has been a nagging problem for the Indian IT company which often found the employee missing after he/she lands up with a particular assignment in the US. Not only the company used to loose all it had spent on the employee for his/her training and development, it sometime had to face cancellation of contracts by the US client for delayed delivery of service, which arise from non-committed employee. The new norm would act as a deterrent for unscrupulous employees," Bhaskar Rajah, deputy director of American Centre in Kolkata said.

Under the new guideline, an employee has to come back to India and make fresh petition for applying for a new H-IB. In case, he/she is found wanting to establish the case for quitting earlier assignment mid-way and shifting to new job, the visa could also be denied.

"For decent people, there should not be a problem getting the new visa. But those indulging in unscrupulous act of quitting job mid-way, getting a new visa would be an issue. So those indulging in such act will think twice before actually doing it since the uncertainty will rise manifold. Moreover, they have to come back to the country again," he added.

Even though the norm is new in the US, such practice has already been available in many other countries. Indian software companies have been demanding this in the US to stop unlawful poaching.

There are several categories of temporary worker visas and H-1B is one of them. The programme earlier had a visa ceiling of 65,000 per year.

However, with the increased IT demand in the year 2000, this was increased to 1,15,000 and subsequently to 1,95,000 for a period of 3 years. The three-year period ended on September 30, 2003 and the H-1B cap was brought back to 65,000 per year.

India is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the H-IB visa programme, which is for a maximum period of three years.