Halt on premium H-1B to hit Indian software companies

Hyderabad: The temporary suspension of ‘premium processing’ of H-1B visas will cause some uncertainty for Indian software companies. Although the suspension will be in force for six months from April 3, the IT industry feels that the impact will last an entire year.

Premium processing allowed companies to jump the queue by paying an extra $1,225 (nearly Rs 80,000), and helped them plan better as the waiting period for employees going to the US was shorter.

While standard processing takes three to six months, premium processing takes a fortnight or three weeks. Reputed IT firms like Google, Microsoft, IBM, Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Deloitte, Capgemini use this facility.

According to National Association of Software and Services Companies, the suspension of premium processing will pose a challenge for software firms.

Former Nasscom chairman B.V.R Mohan Reddy said IT companies preferred premium processing because, for an extra Rs 60,000-Rs 80,000, the company and the employee had clarity about when the employee could start work. Now, getting an H-1B visa in a stipulated time frame would depend on destiny, he said.

Meanwhile, the Bill introduced in the US Congress to stop grants and guaranteed government loans to companies that outsource call centre jobs would not impact India in a big way.

Mr Ramesh Loganathan, former president of the Hyderabad Software Exporters Association, said, “Over the last decade, business and knowledge processing has come to the forefront. India gets projects from European and English speaking countries. The impact would be more on countries like the Philippines.”

However, it is still too early, since the Bill has to pass through the House of Representatives and the Senate, where it could be modified.