Nasscom, the Indian IT industry body, will bring up the issue of H1B visa cap during the visit of US President George Bush to India in early March and urge him to relax the limit "� 65,000 H1B visas to knowledge workers. | |
| Kiran Karnik, president, Nasscom, told reporters in Bangalore on Tuesday, "65,000 H1B visas are hardly sufficient and as soon as the quota opens, the limit is reached within weeks. During the Clinton presidency, the limit was raised to 1.95 lakh, which was a decent number. We will surely bring up this issue but not press for any particular number, only urge him to raise the cap. We have had discussions with the US administration in this regard and there are positive signs." |
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| He further added that 1.95 lakh H1B visas might not be required but it would be helpful if the current cap was raised further. "Let the market forces determine the number. When the limit of 195,000 was in force, the limit was not reached," he observed. |
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| Karnik also added that Nasscom would bring up the subject of Indian professionals having to pay for social security during their stay in the US. |
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| "The payouts for social security on an individual basis is high and a majority of professionals do not convert their visas into Green Card. The basis for US collecting these funds is based on the assumption that everyone will convert their visas into Green Card. We don't have any problem if the US collects these funds, but they will have to refund if a professional doesn't graduate to a Green Card status," Karnik said. |
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