India urges Canada, US to remove visa problems for IT professionals

Washington, 26th September: India has asked both the US and Canada to remove hurdles faced by IT professionals wanting to work in these nations.

Indian IT professionals are in a jeopardy due to increased rejection rates of their applications for Canada visas and US visas.

Difficulties in getting Canada visas--Raising the issue in a meeting Mr. Edward Fast, Canadian Minister of International Trade, Mr. Anand Sharma, Indian Union Commerce and Industry Minister said Indian IT professionals are finding it extremely difficult to get Canada visas.

He also maintained that interviews for Canada visas were becoming more like an interrogation.

And this is a cause of serious concern for the bilateral service trade, he added. He further maintained that all such obstacles were restricting the flow of Indian professionals with IT skills to move to Canada.

During the India-US CEO forum in Washington, he stressed on the need for a speedy conclusion of the agreement with regard to bilateral social security while seeking a renewal of the GSP (generalized system of preferences) scheme for duty free import of certain goods from developing nations.

New Canada visa guidelines—Canada’s minister Mr. Fast revealed about its latest endeavor of granting multipleentry Canada visas to the holders of passports with 10-year validity period. Mr. Fast reached New York to have a meeting with Mr. Sharma in this regard.

The number of Canada visas issued to Indians in the year 2009 is said to be 145,835 out of which 9,235 for Canada work permits, 6,964 for studying in Canada, 98,545 for Canada temporary residents and 31,090 for Canada permanent resident visas.

It may be worth mentioned that presently, Canada has around one million Indian-Canadians and India happens to be the second biggest source of immigrants to this nation.

Visa issue raised with the US--Indian minister Sharma also raised the issue with the US during the forum in Washington chaired by Ron Kirk, a US trade representative, the official statement adds.

It states that Mr. Sharma showed serious concerns at the increased rejection rate of US visa applications, chiefly US H-1B visas and US L1 visas for Indian IT professionals. This resulted in a decline in the annual uptake of US H-1B visas to almost fifty percent, the minister informed.