India seeks consultations with US at WTO over visa issue

India has sought consultations with the US at WTO on higher visa fees as it is of the view that the measures are inconsistent with the WTO General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), Parliament was informed today.
"India has decided to seek consultations with the US under the dispute settlement mechanism at WTO regarding certain measures, namely allegedly imposing increased fees on certain applicants for L-1 and H1-B categories of non-immigrant visas," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
"India believes that the measures are inconsistent with a number of provisions of WTO GATS."

In March, WTO had said India filed a complaint against the US decision to impose high fees on temporary working visas.
"India notified the WTO Secretariat on March 3 that it has initiated a WTO dispute proceeding against the US regarding measures imposing increased fees on certain applicants for L-1 and H-1B categories of non-immigrant temporary working visas into the US, and measures relating to numerical commitments for H-1B visas," it had said.
India has raised serious concern over the issue, saying the move would impact Indian IT professionals.

India, in its complaint, claimed that these and comparable measures are not in conformity with several provisions of GATS, including those on movement of natural persons supplying services.

The request for consultations is the first step in a dispute at the dispute settlement system of WTO.
Consultations give the parties an opportunity to discuss the matter and find a satisfactory solution without proceeding further with litigation.
If consultations fail to resolve the dispute, the complainant may request the Dispute Settlement Body to establish a panel of experts to study the dispute.