Showing posts with label NRIs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NRIs. Show all posts

Thursday, September 24, 2009

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Wipro expands UK centre

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited, announced the expansion of its facility in Reading and opening of a new office in London.

The center at Reading was inaugurated by The Right Worshipful the Mayor of Reading. This center is an extension of the existing development center facility. This facility will be used for building centers of excellence, delivering customer projects and training purposes.

Speaking on this occasion the Mayor of Reading, Councilor Fred Pugh, said, “It is very encouraging that an international company is ready to invest in Reading in these difficult times. Wipro is a major employer in Reading and a major player in the business community the Council is pledged to support.”

Continuing its business expansion in the UK, Wipro is also inaugurating its new office premises in London. This office would be the headquarters for Wipro’s UK operations. The facility will serve as a sales office with state-of the art infrastructure.

Laxman Badiga, Chief Information Officer, Wipro Technologies said, “Taking on the ownership of the facility at Reading is the first of its kind for Wipro overseas and hence makes this occasion special. The Reading center started with just one floor and had a little over 30 employees when we began. The expansion in Reading and opening of the new office in London has only reinforced our commitment to the region.”

Ayan Mukerji, Head of Europe Operations, Wipro Technologies said, “Today, Wipro has grown to become a leading IT Services company in the UK. Both the centers at Reading and London will be a key hub for recruiting, training of local staff and also gives an opportunity to offer an onsite development center premises to more customers.”

Revenues from Wipro’s European operations account for approx 26% of the IT major’s overall IT Services revenue. UK is one of the key markets for Wipro with a large customer base. The establishment of the new offices will now facilitate Wipro’s growth strategy in the UK and the overall growth in the European region.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

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Companies continue to send employees overseas amid cost cuts: KPMG

Companies across the world have continued to send employees overseas to take advantage of business opportunities, despite a reduced budget for international assignment programs during the economic downturn, a KPMG survey says.

According to a survey of 470 human resources (HR) executives by the global consultancy, firms are implementing a variety of options to potentially save costs associated with long-term or standard assignments.

Some of these options include short-term assignments (STAs), currently being used by 79 per cent of firms, while permanent transfers is being utilised by 45 per cent of organisations, the survey said.

"KPMG survey results mirror our experience with clients. We saw that companies/employers often adjusted parts of their programs and examined alternate assignment types based on their business needs, but continued to send assignees to work on long-term business opportunities overseas," KPMG LLP managing director of Global Mobility Advisory Services Achim Mossmann said.

"As the decline in global economy affected almost every area of business and most firms assessed cost-effectiveness of their operations, international assignments were no exception," Mossmann added.

The KPMG survey also revealed that firms made changes to various policy provisions to save costs.

For example, to help determine the cost of living adjustment (COLA) calculation on their assignee packages, 31 per cent of the firms surveyed are using an "efficient purchaser index".

The index is a sliding scale measurement of the ratio of the cost-of-living between the home and host locations, which assumes that an experienced assignee is a 'smart shopper' and is able to purchase goods and services more economically than the average assignee.

The KPMG survey revealed that 49 per cent of respondents find assignees take too much time to administer. Perhaps in response to this view, almost half (47 per cent) of the respondents outsource parts of their international assignment programs to gain access to a service provider's global resources and expertise.

"In some cases, HR departments have been downsized leaving fewer people to manage more work. In these situations, administrative models are often reviewed to achieve efficiency and cost savings," Mossmann said.

The KPMG report stated that outsourcing certain program elements can help reduce the time and effort spent by HR professionals and allows the organisation to tap into the economies of scale in an outsourcing environment.

"As organisations continue to utilise international assignments, they also need to make sure there is a mechanism in place to measure how these assignments provide long-term benefits to the organisation," it added.
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Chinese investors asked to hire Indians

Chinese investors should employ more Indians to run their projects in India instead of bringing large number of workers from China. This is New Delhi's latest response to complaints concerning India's reluctance to grant enough visas for Chinese workers.

An India-specific approach will have to be thought over by Chinese companies, S Jaishankar, India's new ambassador in Beijing told a conference attended by Indian and Chinese businessmen and officials. He pointed out that companies from other foreign countries did not feel the need to bring their own workers to projects in India, which has a vast reservoir of skilled workmen and a long history of industry and entrepreneurship.

"I have personal experience in working with many of India's other major economic partners. I cannot recall their investments and projects requiring such large manpower support from home," Jaishankar, who was earlier ambassador in Singapore, said.

The statement comes at a time when several Indian companies have joined the chorus along with their Chinese partners about increasing the issuance of visas for Chinese workers. But the Indian government is not encourahing this because large inflow of foreign labour can thwart skill development and cause heart-burning among Indian workers.

It is possible that business models of non-Chinese investors are based more heavily on collaborating with local Indian capabilities, he said, while speaking at a seminar organized by Ficci and the China Council for Promotion of International Trade.

Indian companies sourcing equipment and services from China should advise and assist the sellers on reducing their dependence on Chinese workers and using more of Indian skill, Jaishankar said.

No Easy Visas
Companies from other foreign countries do not feel the need to bring own workers to projects in India, says ambassador Jaishankar His statement comes at a time when Indian comapnies have also joined the chorus with their Chinese partners for increasing the issuance of visas Indian govt is not encouraging this as large inflow of foreign labour can hit skill development and welfare of Indian workers.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Nasscom lobbies for single work visa for EU

Software industry body Nasscom has approached the European Union (EU) for a single work visa for IT workers to enable employees of Indian companies to move freely across the 27-member regional grouping. The current regulations require Indian IT workers to have visas issued at home for every EU country they visit.

In effect, an IT worker, with an Indian passport on a supply chain management project for a company that has offices in Italy, France and Germany, needs work visas from the three countries. If he doesn’t have a visa from any one of these countries, he needs to come back to India and apply for one.

With business from Europe going up by 45% in the past three years for these IT companies, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has now approached the world’s most advanced economic bloc for a pan-EU renewable work permit with a validity of at least 12 months.

“A single work visa will help ease the situation,” said V Balakrishnan, CFO of Infosys Technologies. Europe accounts for 28% of Infosys’ revenues of around $5 billion, and the country’s second-largest technology services company says its revenues from the continent have a potential to grow to 40% in a few years.

The Nasscom presentation asks the European Commission to consider a common work visa for intra-corporate transferees. This could be like the tier-II intra-corporate transferee visa issued by the UK or the L1 visa issued by the US for intra-company transfer of workers on projects with global companies.

The association also wants that the scope of the visa should not be limited to one client — Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands follow such a policy — but allow the employee to provide services to multiple clients. Nasscom hasn’t asked the Indian government for help.

Today, it takes between one week and six months to get a work visa for EU countries. In case of the Czech Republic, it can take up to six months to get a work visa while for Romania, getting just an appointment for a visa can take up to 18 weeks, said an HR head of a mid-level technology services company, who did not wish to be named.

This wasn’t a problem till recently as Europe — outside the UK — accounted for less than 10% of the IT services revenues. However, now that continental Europe is more open to third-party sourcing, particularly from Indian companies, a lack of a common work visa is turning out to be an unnecessary administrative hurdle.

“When they have a common currency and a common tourist visa, why not allow free movement of workers?” said Ameet Nivsarkar, vice-president for global trade and development at Nasscom. Schengen visa allows tourists to Europe travel freely in the EU countries.

TCS, the country’s largest IT company, saw continental Europe contribute 11% to its revenues in the first quarter of 2009-10, and sees an upswing in work from continental Europe.

“Not having a single work visa across EU nations leads to compliance challenges, different processing times and mobility challenges. The new common work permit known as the EU Blue Card will offer IT professionals and people from other high-skilled professions’ employability across EU member countries,” said Ajoy Mukherjee, vice-president and head of global HR at TCS.

While Blue Card, which will be implemented by 2011, will address issues related to working in the EU, Nasscom says it has limitations. “Blue Card is primarily to address worker shortage in Europe and does not address the problem of employees going on projects via intra-company transfers. This is why a common work permit for continental Europe is desired,” said Mr Nivsarkar.
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20,000 H1B visas still up for grabs in the US

About 20,000 H-1B visas, one of the most sought after for overseas professionals including Indians, are still up for grabs in the US which is struggling to fill up the allocated number of 65,000, even as less than a month remains before the start of the next financial year.

Primarily meant for computers and information technology professionals, the H-1B visas have been one of the most sought after for foreign professionals in previous years.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has been receiving several times the number of the allocated quota. However, this year, the USCIS is struggling to fill up the 65,000 H-1B visas as mandated by the US Congress.

This is mainly attributed to the strict approval policy adopted by the USCIS this year and the ongoing economic recession, which has resulted in a 26-year high unemployment rate of 9.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

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US govt seeks $5 mn for H-1B visa fraud

The US government has reportedly filed a new expanded indictment against an IT services company, Visions System, for fraudulently using H-1B visas.

According to a report in Computerworld, the US government alleges that the New Jersey-based IT services company paid H-1B workers based on Iowa's lower prevailing wage rates through the creation of shell firms in that state, and not the prevailing wage rates of the higher paying locations where they worked.

According to the report, if federal prosecutors win their case against Visions System Group Inc, they will ask the court to approve $4.9 million in forfeited assets, an amount "representing the total amount of gross proceeds obtained as a result of offenses," the government said.

However, this amount is a reduction from the $7.4 million the US sought from Visions Systems in its initial indictment, filed earlier this year. The reduction was not explained in court documents.

Visions Systems and its executives named in the indictment are fighting the charges in US District Court in Iowa. The attorney representing Vision Systems disputes the government's charge. The news report quotes the company's attorney, Mark Weinhardt, saying that the workers were paid at or above the prevailing wage rates of the places that they were working.

"Vision Systems Group's business was to bring highly trained computer specialists to the United States to serve a need that was unmet or underserved by our native population. We don't think bringing people from abroad to meet that need is or should be a crime," Visions Systems attorney reportedly said.

Monday, August 31, 2009

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Nasscom proposes new service visa to replace H-1B

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.

“The service visa will enable US companies to avail the best of Indian talent without worrying about immigration issues. It will not have residency or permanent citizenship implications,” said Ganesh Natarajan, vice-chairman, Zensar Technologies.

Technology firms, both Indian and multinational, are one of the largest users of H1-B visas. In the past few years, there have many unsuccessful attempts to restrict the use of H1-B visas through legislations that have proposed a cap on the number of visas that can be issued.

According to industry estimates, there are about 12,000 employees from Indian IT firms and 10,000 from American IT firms that go to the US annually on these visas.

This year, however, because of the slowdown and reduced demand for technology services, only around 45,000 H-1B visas have been issued compared to the total available 65,000 H-1B visas. “Usually, the entire H-1B quota is filled up in a matter of days. This year, there are only four months to go and the quota is still not filled,” said a senior IT industry executive.
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Free the H-1Bs, Free the Economy

This is a guest post by Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Executive in Residence at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa.
Originally posted on TheWashingtonPost


I have a suggestion for our President on how to boost economic growth without spending a penny: Free the H-1B's.

More than a million doctors, engineers, scientists, researchers, and other skilled workers and their families in the U.S. are stuck in ?immigration limbo." They entered the country legally and have contributed disproportionately to our nation?s competitiveness. They paid our high taxes and have been model citizens. All they want to do is to share the American dream and help us grow our economy.

They could be starting companies, buying houses, building community centers, and splurging like Americans. But because we don?t have enough permanent-resident visas (green cards) for them, they?re stuck in the same old jobs they had maybe a decade ago when they entered this country. They are getting really frustrated and many are returning to their home countries to become unwilling competitors. And they are taking our economic recovery with them.

Xenophobes will claim that immigrants take jobs away and blame them for everything that is wrong in their lives and in America. But as TechCrunch wrote last week, skilled immigrants create more jobs than they take away. That is a fact. My research team documented that one quarter of all technology and engineering startups nationwide from 1995 to 2005 were started by immigrants. In Boston, it was 31%, in New York, 44%, and in Silicon Valley an astonishing 52%. In 2005, these immigrant founded companies employed 450,000 workers. Add it up. That?s far more than all the tech workers we gave green cards to in that period.

It?s not only jobs that they've created. In 2006, more than 25% of U.S. global patents had authors who were born abroad ¿ and this doesn?t even count people like me, who came here, became citizens, and then filed multiple patents. Of Qualcomm?s global patents, 72% had foreign-born authors, as did 65% of Merck?s, 64% of GE?s, and 60% of Cisco?s. I?m not talking about silly patents filed with the U.S. Patent Office here, I?m talking about WIPO PCT applications ¿ the patents that help our companies compete globally.

Why does Silicon Valley need a foreign-born workforce? Because these immigrants are able come to a foreign land where they face hardship and discrimination and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the world?s best technical minds and most successful entrepreneurs. They are able motivate Silicon Valley?s top guns to work even harder and think smarter. They add a global perspective and enrich America.

The largest immigrant founding groups are Indian, British, and Chinese. Indian-born immigrants, for example, founded 6.7% of America?s tech companies and 15.5% of those in Silicon Valley ¿ but, according to the U.S. census, constitute way less than 1% of the U.S. population. So do the Chinese, but they contribute to 16.8% of our global patents. It doesn?t take a statistician to figure that these are pretty impressive numbers.

Yes, I know that H-1B?s don?t start companies. And that is the problem. We don't let them.

Hundreds of thousands of mostly very smart and highly educated workers who could be starting companies are not. While they wait for their green cards, they can?t even change jobs or accept a promotion, for fear of losing their turn in line. If they lose their job, they have to find another job within 30 days ¿ or get booted out of the country. Their employers know that these workers aren?t going anywhere, so they can go easy on the salary increases and bonuses. Some unscrupulous employers do take advantage of them. And their spouses usually can?t work, and in some states can?t even get drivers licenses, because they don?t have social-security numbers. Does this sound like America?

Unlike the daunting economic problems facing the country, this problem is easy to fix. Just increase the number of green cards for skilled workers. Maybe let them cut the line if they buy a house or start a company that employs a bunch of Americans. My guess is that we?ll get tens of thousands of startups and a couple of hundred thousand houses sold. That is a bigger economic boost than the clunkers program we've just thrown $2 billion dollars at.

Friday, August 28, 2009

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H1-B restriction: Silicon Valley to be hurt

Several bright minds outside America take that flight to the U.S. seeking better opportunities in places like Silicon Valley, which is often described as the Mecca for entrepreneurs. However, with the hue and cry surrounding the H-1B visas the flow of immigrants into U.S. may get affected, which may also diminish the tech prowess of the most technologically advanced nation in the world.

There was at least one immigrant founder in 25 percent of all engineering and technology companies established in the U.S. between 1995 and 2005, reveals a study by a group of Professors in Duke University and the University of California. These entities generated over $52 billion in 2005 sales, while creating over 450,000 jobs as of 2005. With these contributions by the immigrants in the U.S., any impediments in the issuance H1-B visa can have a huge impact on the American economy.

The U.S. administration under George W Bush had been pushing for immigration reforms, which failed to take shape last year. There are roughly 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and the reforms are aimed at making a way for some of these immigrants to stay in the country legally. Now that Barack Obama has taken charge in the White House, are these reforms on his priority list?

Recently, Obama assured the pro-immigrant activists that the immigration reforms would not lose its importance over the health-care reform and the energy legislation. The President is likely to endorse the views of Senator Charles Schumer, Chairman of the Senate's Immigration Subcommittee, who has said that he will introduce new reform legislation this autumn.

However, there are some challenges that Schumer and team faces in order to make the legislation a reality. Senators Richard Durbin and Charles Grassley are sponsors of a bill to stop the alleged abuse of H-1B visas, which allow companies to employ workers from overseas for limited stays. They have introduced a legislation to restrict the number of H1-B visas to be issued, which was bombarded with criticisms outside U.S. These visas are popular among technology companies like Microsoft, Infosys and Wipro, which bring some of the brightest minds from around the world to work in the U.S.

The current situation can make U.S. less attractive to immigrants, who may eventually contribute to the country's growth. Take the examples of Vikram Pandit, Indra Nooyi or Sanjay Jha, who took that flight to the U.S. and have made it big by heading some of the largest companies on the planet.

Commentators like CNN's Lou Dobbs have often highlighted about a huge reverse brain drain in the U.S. - which has been his dream - that is closer to reality. Immigrants, who have received their education and work experience in U.S., are packing their bags to go back to their homeland. In addition, there is also a decline in the number of foreign students seeking admissions in the U.S. universities, for the first time in five years.

According to the latest report by the Council of Graduate Schools, the average decline in the admissions from students outside U.S. is three percent. The highest decline is seen from countries in Asia with India leading the pack with a 12 percent decline.
Originally posted on siliconindia.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

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Immigration Service inspecting H-1B employers

Source:mb.com
The Immigration Service has recently begun investigating H-1B employers to identify fraudulent petitions. Employers are reporting privately contracted investigators arriving unannounced at worksites to investigate approved H-1B petitions.

These visits are deliberately unannounced and the investigators ask to speak with the human resource (HR) representative and H-1B worker. The employer rep and employee have little to no time to prepare the information needed. The element of surprise can also confuse the H-1B parties and result in inconsistent responses.

Investigators are asking the HR representative questions about the company such as the how many employees it has and how many are legal residents. Questioning then moves to the H-1B job duties, salary, work hours and start date. Sometimes the person interviewed is not as familiar with the job duties as, say for example the H-1B employee’s immediate supervisor. This can result in well-intentioned but harmful guessed answers. The H-1B employee is also individually questioned about duties and responsibilities, salary, work hours and period of employment. When one investigator was asked if the interview was based on a random selection process, the investigator stated that it was not random.

It is important that H-1B employers and employees be prepared for these unannounced visits. The designated HR representative should have a clear and thorough understanding of the H-1B worker’s duties and responsibilities. The HR rep should not guess any answers, but, have the information readily available, including the start date, work hours, and wages paid. These should be consistent with those listed on the petition, and if not, immediately brought to the attention of the company’s immigration attorney to advise on the corrective measures that need to be taken.

It was extremely revealing that these inspections are not random. From a previous release by the immigration service, we know that certain factors trigger referrals to the H-1B fraud unit. These are employers with gross annual income of less than $10 million, less than 25 employees, companies engaged in consulting or staffing showing no end-client/work description or itinerary, job location on the LCA differing from the place of employment, no website for IT companies, excessive blanks in the petition and for certain H-1B occupations. The suspect occupations are Accountants, Market Research Analysts, Business Analysts, Financial Analysts, Advertising Managers, Public Relations and Sales positions with what the Immigration Service calls “marginal companies”. A marginal company is defined by the Immigration Service as lacking the organizational complexity required to support the position on a full-time basis. Examples provided to adjudicators are liquor stores, dry cleaners, gas stations, residential care facilities, convenience stores, donut shops, fast food restaurants, dental offices, 99 cent stores and parking lots.

The Immigration Service has created a profile of what it deems to be a suspect H-1B petition. There are many legitimate H-1B petitions that fit squarely within the suspect profile. H-1B employers and employees in this position should understand that they can be subjected to additional scrutiny from the Immigration Service. Consequently, they should be properly prepared by thoroughly and accurately documenting the H-1B position. They should clearly understand the scope and terms of employment. Then, even if they receive a surprise visit from an investigator, they will be able to demonstrate the H-1B position is a legitimate and valid position.
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H1B Cap : August 2009 Update

The USCIS H1B cap count, as of August 14, 2009, is 45,000. This is a slight increase over the past several counts. The advanced degree cap remains at 20,000. The USCIS continues to accept FY2010 H1B cases under the advanced degree and regular caps.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Australia to tighten visa rules for students

Faced with sharp increase in student visa applications, Australia is set to tighten its visa policy to ensure bonafide and genuine candidates come to the country for higher studies. The department of immigration and citizenship is strengthening checks on student visa applications to stamp out fraud and ensure that students have the financial capacity to live and study in Australia, an official statement said.

The measure is likely to affect the mobility of international students who come in the name of pursuing education but end up working as unskilled labourers. Minister for immigration and citizenship Chris Evans said applications for student visas grew 20% to 362,193 in 2008-09 while about 28,000 student visas were refused.

“While overall student visa compliance rates remain high, there are elements of concern within this large caseload,” the minister said in the statement. The measures will address the documents related fraud and other issues like identification of financial capacity. The measures include upgrading interview programme to check visa access through agents who are suspected of fraud or inactivity.

The minister said these measures are consistent with those used by other countries that receive large numbers of student visa applications, such as the US. “The message is clear: genuine international students remain welcome in Australia, but we will not tolerate fraud in the student visa programme,” the minister said.

There are about 97,000 Indian students pursuing studies in education in Australia. Many of them lack financial support and engage themselves in courses like hairdressing, cookery to go for part-time unskilled work in various units.

Friday, August 21, 2009

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Indian IT companies may have to hire more UK staff

UK, one of the top export markets for India’s over $40-billion software industry, is evaluating stricter immigration rules proposed by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) after several British trade lobbyists and workers alleged that Indian tech firms are replacing local workers with overseas staff at lower salary levels.

Top Indian tech firms including TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra serve British customers such as BT, British Petroleum and British Airways by sending Indian professionals to the country on short-term project assignments. With more stringent norms, these companies may have to employ more local UK workers instead of sending their Indian staff for onsite projects.

Anti-offshoring lobbies including Unite and the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) allege that Indian tech firms are misusing the ‘intra-company-transfer’ rules by replacing UK workers at wages lower than prescribed levels in the country.

The MAC report submitted by the committee’s chairman Professor David Metcalf to UK’s Home Office on Wednesday has recommended that the threshold salary levels for allowing entry of a graduate skilled worker be raised from around £17,000 currently, making it tougher to earn points needed for allocation of work permits.

“We believe that the earnings thresholds should rise in line with earnings inflation. We recommend raising the minimum threshold for gaining 10 points to £24,000 per annum, and raising the minimum threshold for gaining 15 points to £28,000 per annum,” the MAC report added. These figures compare to £20,000 and £22,000, respectively, under the current system.

Last year, UK granted around 45,766 work permits to workers coming to the country through intra-company-transfer route, a majority of them awarded to the IT professionals. The majority of intracompany transfers are for Indian nationals, who account for 69% of the permits granted through this route.

Almost half (48%) of intra-company transfers are for Indian nationals in just one occupation — software professionals . “Companies are even allowed to pay these workers offshore in foreign currencies, so intra company transfers are potentially very easy to exploit in order to bring cheap foreign labour into the UK,” Ann Swain, chief executive of APSCo said in a recent statement.

Nasscom, the Indian software industry lobby, said the recommendations will help fix the loopholes in the system. “There were some cases of abuse reported in the past and the new norms ensure compliance to guidelines and there is a system in place to audit the visa process,” said Som Mittal, president of Nasscom. “The issue of salary — at least £20,000 a year as minimum wage for an employee going to the UK is also acceptable as less than 0.2% of the current ICT employees going to the UK are at a salary less than that. This measure has been put in place to check abuse,” he added.

The report also recommends that migrants coming to UK under intracompany-transfer route cannot have a right to permanent residence. “Because the intra-company transfer route exists to facilitate temporary immigration to the UK, we recommend that time spent in the UK under this route does not lead to a right to permanent residence,” the report said. Under the current rules, after five years of working in the UK on the intra-company transfer route or any other route under tier-II, it is possible to be granted permanent residence.

Meanwhile, Indian IT workers in UK feel such recommendations are not required. “Tier-II visas without the right to settlement will lead to exploitation of skilled professionals who will have to pay taxes but will not be able to settle in the UK,” said Amit Kapadia, executive director of the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) Forum in UK. “In recommending so we believe the MAC has gone beyond its scope in answering the questions which were raised by the then home secretary Jackie Smith,” he added.

Experts such as Bob McDowall, who is the research director with Tower-Group said these allegations are true. “The wages are lower than the UK minimum wage, though there remains a substantial cost of living differential between India and the UK,” he said. The backlash, according to him, is set to gain more momentum because of the rising unemployment. Moreover, IT workers coming to UK for short-term projects will also need to have more work experience. “To ensure that the route allows only people with company-specific expertise to come to the UK, we believe that the qualifying period with the company overseas should be doubled from the current six months to 12 months.”

However, MAC’s recommendations are pure advisory and the Home Office may or may not accept them. “We need to remember that these are recommendations at this stage and the government is considering the report before responding formally. No decisions have been taken and it’s too early to speculate on the government’s response ,” Chris Dix, regional director South Asia and the Gulf, UK Border Agency, told ET on Thursday.
Source: EconomicTimes

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

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Visa norms crush Indian job dream for expat spouses

Source: EconomicTimes
In August last year, when Miranda Green’s husband, Drew, got an offer from Shell to relocate to India on an intra-company transfer with full international terms, the Dutch couple was ecstatic. It helped that the energy company promoted dual-career couples like Miranda and Drew, both had worked for over 20 years with Shell, she in the accounts department and Drew as a materials and corrosion engineer.

The company also needed an accounts specialist with deep knowledge of Shell’s processes to lead its new business support organisation in Bangalore, and Miranda’s qualification and experience with Shell were a perfect fit for the job.

Things seemed to be going according to plan for the couple until they applied for work visas (called employment, or ‘E’ category, visas) at the Indian embassy in the Netherlands in February this year. While Drew, 46, got his, Miranda’s was refused on the grounds that as an expatriate’s (expat’s) wife she is not eligible to work in India.

“My job meant a lot to me. Drew and I were shocked and devastated. It became clear in our discussions with the embassy that any further appeals might make matters worse. After a lot of soul-searching, we decided to go ahead with Drew’s assignment and I resigned my job to accompany him (to Bangalore),” says a dejected Miranda.

For 35-year-old American Brandon de Cuir, too, the passage to India as an accompanying spouse has been a difficult one. Brandon’s wife, Christi DeCuir, a business development executive, got an India assignment on an intra-company transfer with Cisco Systems starting January 2008.

Since Brandon’s then employer, Seattle-based renewable energy firm Blue Marble Energy, did not have operations in India, it became difficult for him to obtain a visa. So he thought he would do the next best thing: try and land a job in India’s tech capital, Bangalore.

“I tried with at least four local start-ups, but the fact that as an accompanying spouse I would need to return to my home country to apply for an employment visa and the inherent bureaucracy and uncertainty in the whole process put the companies off making a job offer,” says Brandon, who is now willy-nilly a full-time homemaker and baby-sitter––the couple were blessed with a baby boy, their firstborn, last fortnight.

“This is such a pity as the Indian government says it wants to encourage the type of technologies in which I have expertise,” he added. The Greens and the de Cuirs are among the hundreds of expat couples whose India dreams begin to sour when they come into contact with an outdated visa regime that hinders dependent visa-holders, chiefly spouses, from automatically working in the country even after a valid job offer on an intra-company transfer.

Couples of Indian origin, who often opt for a career move to India, too are impacted by this law. Currently, foreign nationals coming to India on an employment visa may obtain an “X visa” meant for dependents such as spouses. If the spouse decides to take up employment in India, the person will be required to go back to the port of origin and obtain an employment visa, which could take a long time.

Refusal rates, too, are high, as in the case of Miranda Green. There are over 50,000 highly skilled expat employees in India working with Indian and overseas multinational companies, according to an estimate by the Hague-based Permits Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that lobbies governments globally for open work authorisation for expat spouses. The foundation counts 42 leading transnationals such as Shell, Ericsson, British Airways, ING, Unilever, AstraZeneca and KPMG among its corporate sponsors.

“India is a growth story; every company wants to bring its best people to India, and our members put India right on top of our priority list along with Indonesia, Malaysia, the European Union and China,” says Kathleen van der Wilk-Carlton, a member of the Board of Permits Foundation.

The foundation has recently begun a lobbying effort with the Indian government to make it easier for highly skilled spouses of expats to work in this country. It is also in talks with member companies on the issue. “They (the companies) all recognise this as a small but important issue. It starts with being a personal issue, but becomes a corporate issue (soon),” adds Ms Wilk-Carlton.

Archana Bhaskar, HR head of Shell India, says that spouses not being able to work has become a issue because of the criticality of expat skills, especially in a sector like oil and gas. “Invariably, the question from these potential expat hires is whether their spouse can work in India, and often they don’t accept India postings because this is not easy,” she said. The Shell Group employs around 100 expats among its 2,000 staff.

Globally, despite protectionism by some governments in the wake of the economic slowdown, the cross-border movement of highly skilled professionals remains critical for multinational corporations. Experts feel that India, too, needs to imbibe a range of skills that are not available locally to cross-pollinate them with the ones that exist in the country.

As far as the Indian government is concerned, it is grappling with a huge backlog of cases pertaining to various visa issues such as extensions and transfers since 2003, “and any big change on employment visas looks unlikely,” feels Mumbai-based immigration lawyer Poorvi Chothani.

A senior official in the ministry of home affairs told ET that there is no policy change in the offing for spouses of foreign nationals coming to India on employment visas. “The Indian rules are merely reflecting old patterns of expat entry when spouses were not working. It is probably an oversight, but for us it’s early days in our engagement with the government here,” observes Ms Wilk-Carlton.

Work permit-related restrictions often depend on reciprocal arrangements between two countries. “Some MNCs have been lobbying with the Indian government to allow spouses of employment visa holders to work in India. However, it often depends on reciprocal protocol in the country of origin. For instance, there are a large number of Indians in the US on H1B visas and their spouses are not allowed to work there. Besides, the mandatory payment of social security is also an issue with the H1B visa holders. Sorting out such reciprocal issues would help in easing work permit issues for spouses of expats working in India,” says Sonu Iyer, tax partner, at Ernst & Young.

Compared to some of the countries where there are a large number of Indians on work permits, India does not really fare too well in offering a level playing field for spouses of work permit holders. “Increasingly, countries view business-related transfers differently from long-term immigration and recognise the benefit of introducing country ‘attractiveness’ measures,” the Permits Foundation wrote while presenting its case to the home ministry.

Miranda says that right now they are only eight weeks into her husband’s assignment, so she is busy with the challenges of settling into a new country. “But there will come a moment when I want to think about what else I can do to keep my brain active and my employment skills up to date. If I do find another job, I understand that the regulations require me to go back to the Netherlands to start the whole employment visa process again. I don’t relish the thought of it,” remarks Miranda, who says that her husband has already halved his four-year assignment because of the country’s unsympathetic work visa regime for expat spouses.

A global survey by the Permits Foundation covering over 3,000 expat spouses in 117 countries in December last year lists lack of job opportunity for the spouse as a major mobility deterrent for senior executives.

Brandon says that he and his wife have now been in India 18 months and his desire to work in the host country has been a major factor in deciding not to stay here longer despite the fact that Cisco would have liked his wife to extend her contract.

“My wife’s next posting is likely to be in Europe where there are several countries in which I, as an accompanying spouse, am permitted to take employment or self employment without needing a separate work permit. This will make it a really attractive posting for both of us,” he said.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

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H-1B Visa Companies Getting Unannounced Visits by Feds

Source: eWeek
If your company is using H-1B visa workers, you may get a surprise from the government. Piece of advice for your manager: It's voluntary, but the surprise could intimidate.

In an attempt to help root out fraud and other criminal activity, the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services agency is making surprise visits to companies with H-1B visa holders on the books.
After reports came out that there has been evidence shown of fraudulent use of temporary workers, bad documentation abusing the system and many visa holders not being paid prevailing wages, the Feds are showing up without notice and looking to see that everything is on the up and up. Click here for complete story from eWeek.
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Wipro Launches Consulting Academy in the United States

Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT) announced that it has undertaken a key initiative to strengthen the consulting and customer management skills of its frontline employees.

The EAS (Enterprise Application Services) Consulting Academy aims to go beyond training to inculcate the right engagement behavior at an early stage that will go beyond improving customer satisfaction. The academy offers a six month certification programme to all Wipro employees who are involved in delivering consulting solutions to our clients. The program includes a combination of class room sessions followed by implementation of the learnings at the client workspace.

The EAS consulting academy has received very positive response from its clients, with some getting actively involved as faculty at the academy and acting as “guides” to pre-assigned students throughout the training period.

“It is great to see Wipro making these strategic investments into consulting, in spite of the prevailing economic conditions.” said Joe Simon, CIO, Viacom. “The EAS consulting academy is a win-win proposition for Wipro and the client, since it will help us in the future”

Speaking on the occasion Sangita Singh, Senior Vice President ,Enterprise Application Services, Wipro Technologies said “The EAS consulting academy is a key Wipro initiative to align our workforce closely to the business objectives of our clients, we are extremely happy with the overwhelming support that we are getting from our clients.”

The program will be run by Wipro's Corporate Human resource Development in conjunction with Enterprise Application Services business unit as well as eminent academicians and luminaries from the industry. The study will be facilitated through case studies, anecdotal learning interspersed with rigorous assignments in all areas. Wipro plans to certify around 300 consultants globally in the current financial year. The first batch of 60 consultants will get certified by September 2009.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

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20,000 H-1B visas still remaining

For the first time in several years the H-1B visa programme, once the most sought after among Indian professionals, is unlikely to reach its cap of 65,000 before the start of the 2010 fiscal with nearly 20,000 slots lying vacant thanks to the tattered US economy.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it has received approximately 49,000 H-1B petitions till August seven counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap, more than four months after it started accepting applications for visas for the 2010 fiscal beginning this October.

This is in contrast to the previous years when the USCIS had to resort to computerised draw of lots as it received petitions outnumbering several times more than the Congressional mandated cap of 65,000 within the first few days after it started receiving H-1B applications.

The figure of 20,000 slots in the vacant category has remained almost the same for the past two months. This is also due to a large number of rejections of H-1B petitions.

Indian IT professionals have been a major beneficiary of H-1B visas, figures released in the past have said. An additional 20,000 H-1B can also be issued to those foreign professionals, who have masters or higher degree from the US.

Though the USCIS received 20,000 petitions, it continues to accept applications in this category. For the fiscal 2010, the USCIS started receiving H-1B petitions from April 1. In the first five working days, it received 42,000 H-1B petitions. In the month and half since then, USCIS has received just 7,000 more H-1B petitions.

This is mainly attributed to the current economic crisis and the tougher measures being adopted by the USCIS and the State Department in sanctioning of H-1B visas.

In 2007 and 2008 the caps were reached in the first few days itself -- April 2 and April 1-5 respectively.

In 2007 and 2006, the H-1B cap in the general categories were reached on May 26 and July 26 respectively, while in 2005 it was reached on August 10.

In 2004, the USCIS had to wait till October 1, before it stopped accepting H-1B petitions for the fiscal 2005, while the fiscal year 2004, it took 10 months to reach the cap.

The cap could not be reached in 2001, 2002 and 2003, when the Congress had mandated 195,000 H-1B visas instead of 65,000.

For the years 2000 and 1999, the Congress had sanctioned 115,000 H-1B visas. While for the fiscal 2000, it was on July 21, cap exceeded. From 1992 to 1997, when the Congress had mandated 65,000 H-1B visas, the cap was not reached.

Monday, August 10, 2009

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Belgian offsites set to be hassle-free, but not totally

Employees of Infosys, Wipro and a host of IT and pharma companies that have a base in Belgium will no longer need to contribute to the social securityscheme there as India implements its first totalisation agreement.

However, Indian tax laws, which have not been aligned with the provisions of the totalisation agreement, threaten to take the sheen off the benefits offered by the treaty signed between two countries to prevent double expenditure on social security.

Currently, when an Indian company sends an employee on an assignment for 2-3 years, he and his employer have to contribute to the social security system prevalent in that country as also to provident fund back home. While this puts an additional burden on an employer, it does not benefit the employee in any way as in most countries, the minimum duration for deriving any benefit is 10 years.

According to estimates, Indian IT professionals in the US contribute close to $1 billion every year. Social security in India is covered by the provident fund scheme, under which an employee contributes 12% of his basic salary plus dearness allowance and his employer makes a matching contribution.

But it is not recognised as a social security by other countries in the absence of such an agreement. But now, this hardships will be mitigated in the case of Belgium as the India-Belgium totalisation agreement comes into effect from September 1.

But with the government yet to align the country’s tax laws with the provisions in the totalisation agreement, the treaty may mitigate only part of the hardship. For example, for an Indian national posted in Belgium to get coverage, his Indian employer needs to continue the contribution to his provident fund.

But, to be able to do that, it would be necessary for him to continue paying his base salary in India which would be subject to tax here even if such salary is not related to employment exercised in India.

“Unless our domestic tax laws get similarly aligned, what is saved on account of Belgian social security may get paid out in the form of Indian taxes,” Amitabh Singh, partner Ernst & Young said.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

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Green card applications down nearly 80 percent

Green card applications have fallen substantially over the past years, according to a study by the Associated Press. Employers have sponsored less than half the number of employees in 2008 and 2009 than in 2007 and earlier. High unemployment and broader recessionary factors have triggered the decline in permanent resident applications.

In fiscal year 2007, employers submitted nearly 235,000 green card applications. By 2008, applications fell to around 104,000. For the first eight months of this year, fewer than 36,000 employer-sponsored applications have been filed. If current application rates persist through the rest of 2009, volume will have fallen close to 80 percent from the 2007 peak.

Projection is based on the assumption that current application rates for 2009 will continue through the end of the year and is strictly for the purpose of illustration.

In 2007, the last year for which data is available, most applications came from India, Mexico, the Philippines, China and Korea, according to Department of Labor data.

Applications are down in part because there are fewer jobs in the market right now and those that are open involve more competition from American applicants than in the past. An unemployment rate that's approaching 10 percent has made it less desirable to hire employees needing green card sponsorship. Keep in mind that hiring and sponsoring an employee entails extra legal costs not present with hiring a U.S. citizen.

To hire a non-U.S. citizen and sponsor a green card, an employer in the United States has several hurdles. It needs to prove that it couldn't find a domestic candidate with the minimum requirements for the position, that it is financially healthy and that it will pay the prevailing rate of pay for the position (relative to the market). And, the green-card candidate must have specialized or unusual skills that make the position impossible to fill through the U.S. labor pool.

The popular misconception that non-U.S. employees are coming into the country and undercutting highly paid Americans is thus not true, as employers can't shop around in cheaper labor markets.

With fewer green card applications being submitted, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service is having an easier time handling its workload. In the past, it could take 15 months or longer for an application to be completed. Now, the department has the process down to five months, which is still a month off from its four-month objective. A larger staff and a decline in applications of almost 80 percent from the 2007 peak were exactly what the department needed to put its target within reach.
Source: DailyFinance and msnbc
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What is H2B visa?

H-2B Work Visa General Information: The H-2B Work Visa was created to allow people to come to the United States temporarily, mainly for non-agricultural jobs, in which the U.S. workers are in short supply. Up to 66,000 H-2B Visas are issued every year. This year's annual quota has not yet been reached. Prospects are good that H-2B Visas will remain available in future years.

H-2B Work Visa Eligibility Requirements: You qualify for an H-2B Work Visa if you are coming to the United States to accept a temporary or seasonal non-agricultural job from a U.S. employer. You may apply if you have the correct background, skills or natural abilities needed by the employer.

H-2B Visas are targeted towards skilled and unskilled workers. The H-2B Work Visa for Skilled and Unskilled Workers Application Guide is comprehensive, detailed, and easy to understand. It contains everything one needs in order to successfully apply for a H-2B Visa.