USA denies visa to Indian Entrepreneurs

A study has discovered that between 1995 to 2005 one out of every four companies of technology and engineering have been founded by Indians or Chinese.

These companies were reported to generate revenue of $52 billion and employed more than 400000 people. America has more than 2000 companies. Out of which 25% is founded by an immigrant. Indians head about 26% of the companies and are the most dominant ethnic group when it comes to enterprising.

In a recent report, United States of America have been rejecting applications by Indian Entrepreneurs. In spite of USA facing the major concern over unemployment and slowing down of economy the visa applications by the Indian nationals have been rejected.

Americans feel that the visas are denied to save the jobs for their own citizens, so that the vacancies don’t share with foreigners.

the entrepreneurs’ who have made available about 1500 jobs to the Indians in their own country are not allowed starting a venture in USA due to lack of visa approval.

Stuart Anderson of Foundation for American policy expresses his concern over the issue. He opines that “denying visa to such entrepreneurs would lead to less availability of jobs to Americans and also close the doors of innovation in the States.”

The issue has been discussed between the officials of Industry and Commerce Departments of both the nations.

A report reveals that 11% of Indian visas were rejected under “Temporary work visa” category whereas only 3% of them were rejected under the same category from countries like Germany and United Kingdom.

The Commerce Department of India has informed that 28% of the visa has been denied under “intra company transfer” or “L1 category” which was only 2.8% in 2008. However, the percentage of visa acceptance by USA has risen up to 15% under the same category for citizens coming from other countries. The planning is to take up the issue at WTO meeting.

A hike in the processing fee of visa application has also been reported, making things difficult for the applicants.

The experts in the commerce group of USA are concerned about the denial as America is going through a phase of “no employment”. At this juncture to keep the entrepreneurs out of the picture is actually aggravating the crisis.