Nasscom chief calls for increasing H-1B visa cap

The closure of applications for the H-1B visa for the year, just a week after they opened on April 1, suggests that the ceiling needs to be higher than the current 65,000, said R. Chandrashekhar, president of Nasscom, which represents the IT and IT-enabled industry in India.

This also showed that the recent doubling of the H-1B visa fee to $4,000 had not affected the demand, he told The Hindu.

Mr. Chandrashekhar said: “The quota is below that needed for the U.S. economy, given the availability of skills there.”

Mr. Chandrashekhar said the closure of applications so quickly also validated efforts in the past by several groups to raise the limit, however unsuccessful. “The absence of a higher number of visas will be felt by the U.S. economy and Corporate America. Any additional cost for visa processing will only act as trade dampener, but it will not dilute the demand for the visas.”

Asked whether the Indian industry wanted to raise the limit to a certain the number of visas, he said: “I don’t want to put a number now, but earlier legislation attempted to raise it to around 1,95,000.”

National Association of Software & Service Companies (NASSCOM)