The United States have told India that the U.S. is going to have a broader look at its visa regime, soon after the outcome of the U.S. presidential elections which are held in November.

This information was conveyed by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, when he raised the issue at the Bilateral Meeting on Monday. She also added that the U.S. understood the concern India has on the visa hike for the professionals and they would definitely have a relook about the situation.  She added that this would not be India specific though.

What is the situation?

For those who doesn’t know, India has protested the 2010 visa hike for professionals, which discriminates against Indian software companies that send employees to America on short-term contracts.

The Visa fee was raised to $2,000 for a single H1-B visa application and $2,700 for an L-1 visa application. This raise was in regard to fund the enhanced costs on securing the border with Mexico under the Border Security Act. This Act also led to the increase in the visa fee for those applicants who applied under H-1B or L-1 categories, with the employer more than 50 employees or with the employer having more than 50 percent of employees working under non-immigrant visas. This rule was said to be “50/50 rule”.

This situation affected top Indian IT companies like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, etc.

Let’s hope U.S. would have some good news very early after the presidential elections. This decision would affect huge IT companies in India as well as the IT professionals working in the United States. Although, this is not India specific, it can be a huge advantage if the visa fee is reduced.

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