No change in demand for techies overseas

Hyderabad: There are still attractive job opportunities in Australia, Canada, the UK, Germany and in European countries for Indian techies.Experts are trying to dispel fears surrounding jobs for Indian techies abroad in the wake of reforms in H-1B visas by the US and the recent announcement by the Australian government abolishing 457 work permit visas. According to Ms Sabina Xavier, chief operating officer, Y-Axis, the future is bright for IT professionals from Telugu states and also the rest of India.

“Australia has abolished 457 visas but it will be replaced with two other visas of two-year and four-year duration. It removed 200 occupations from its skilled occupation list, including HR advisers, market research analysts, call centre managers, and public relation managers. The doors are not closed for tech professionals and they are still very eligible to apply,” Ms Xavier said. Apart from work permit visas, techies are eligible to apply even for immigrant visas for countries like Australia and Canada.

Canada intends to welcome over 3.2 lakh new immigrants as per its immigration plan for 2017. It is a great option for techies as children’s education is free, the spouse can work and pay scales are good. Citizenship can be applied for after four years in Canada. In the United Kingdom, Indians accounted for nearly 60 per cent of tier-2 skilled worker visas issued till September 2016. According to the quarterly Migration Statistics report, 53,575 of the 93,244 skilled worker visa applications that were approved, went to Indians.

Although there has been much talk about reforms in the H-1B visa programme, Ms Xavier stated that US must prevent visa abuse, but it’s only a matter of time before they realise that skilled and experienced techies give US the edge it has today. “Indian techies are welcome and have bright opportunities in Australia, Canada, the UK, Germany, South Africa and in European Union countries,” explained the expert.