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Indian government calls H1B visa fee hike 'discriminatory'
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Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., left, accompanied by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 27, 2010. Photo Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
The government of India is protesting a bill in Congress that passed the House Tuesday and the Senate last week that would significantly raise U.S. visa fees for skilled workers.
In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said the bill unfairly targets Indian companies and estimated it would cost the country's firms an extra $200 million a year.
"It is inexplicable to our companies to bear the cost of such a highly discriminatory law," Sharma wrote.
The additional fees from the popular H-1B and L visas programs would be used to build operating bases and deploy unmanned surveillance drones to better secure the U.S.-Mexico border--one of the rare issues both Democrats and Republicans have agreed on.
The legislation targets companies that lawmakers say "exploit" U.S. visa programs. A summary of the Senate version listed Wipro, Tata, Infosys and Satyam as such firms, saying that they fly thousands of employees to the U.S. to work at as technicians and engineers for their clients.
The Indian government argues that the bill, which raises fees by $2000 from $2500, is discriminatory because it will primarily impact Indian firms even though they account for fewer than 12 percent of the total visas issued. U.S. companies, such as Microsoft, use these visas in larger numbers but there's a loophole in the bill that says they will only see an increase if 50 percent of employees are on H1B or L visas.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) inflamed Indian media outlets in debate in the Senate on Thursday when he called Infosys, the IT outsourcing giant, a "chop shop"--the term often used for the place where stolen cars are dismantled for resale. He said such companies outsource high-paying American tech jobs to immigrants willing to take less pay. He said he did not want the bill to affect companies that employ Americans and "play by the rules."
The USTR and Schumer's office did not immediately respond to requests for commen
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