INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

FICCI's suggestions on India-EU Consular Issues India's fast-growing software industry is becoming a victim of its own success. In the past few months, Indian information technology companies have been subjected to unprecedented harassment by immigration authorities in Europe, Asia and the US. "IT is the only industry in which India is globally competitive, yet new barriers are coming up all the time." There is a feeling that industry faces a range of new non-tariff barriers by western governments. The trend of harassment follows the downturn in the global IT industry over the past two years. In contrast, India's IT industry, which principally thrives on lower labour costs, has grown by about 26%. It now takes almost twice as long for applicants to get an "H1" skilled worker visa as before at the same time American H1 visas has fallen from 195,000 to 65,000. It is also worrisome to impose restrictions on the "L1" visa, which enables organizations to move workers temporarily from another country to the US, as long as the transfer remains within the company. We have to understand that an IT service contract is time critical and as much of a perishable commodity as fruit or vegetables. The delays in visa issuance for a legitimate applicant has also resulted in lost business opportunities for EU companies, delayed projects or movement of projects abroad, loss of jobs in some industries, workforce shortages and other economic stresses. The American banks alone have saved an estimated $6bn by outsourcing to Indian companies in the past few years. "Outsourcing creates savings that make companies and governments more competitive and more efficient." International travel to the US is an $80bn a year industry and Visa delays are contributing to a potential loss in business. Issues related to Visa, Work Permit and Social Security Contribution: There is no consistency in the period of visa granted. While some countries like Germany, give a 90 days multiple entry visa, others give a single entry for a very limited period only. As the process period for visas for business visits are some times 3 working days, this limits senior executives travel at short notice. There is also problem in getting Schengen Visa; applicable in some EU countries. Indian IT companies have businesses across the EU countries and therefore require its employees to work on short term in multiple countries on various IT projects. The present EU norm does not allow this and requires each country to issue a work permit. This is virtually impractical as the project execution needs are so dynamic and short term while the process of obtaining the work permits are very complicated and long. Indian Social Security norms matter a lot to all the employees and are very reasonable through PF, ESI etc. EU countries should accept and respect the Social security agreements of India and should not try impose their format on us. Issues and concerns are divided under General & Country specific. A General Issues: There are frequent changes in visa & work permit procedures and availability of information about it, which lead to confusion and interpretation issues. The procedures are becoming more strict and complicated. Increase in pressure from the trade unions and unemployed nationals to amend the present laws to restrict entry of software professionals from India or outsourcing to India. This is further fuelled by media. Most of the countries do not have a written law for non-immigration visas. This leads to lengthy & cumbersome processes including documentation. Interpretation and procedures differs from Consulate to Consulate. In case of visit to multiple countries, the application for visa requires passport and this kills time of top executives at multiple offices. Long processing time for work permit in most of the countries. Most countries take an average of 3 months to get the necessary approvals. Indian companies incur high social security costs that are not enjoyed by its employees. This also increases costs. Very involved legal process upon entry into most countries. Country specific issues: Germany: Green card scheme will expire by 31st July. There seems to be no likelihood of extending the scheme though they have promised to do so, to the Indian Government. General work permits take a long time to be issued. UK: Pressure to restrict the deployment of people at client site on ICT (Intra company work permits). Increased scrutiny of applications and increased cycle time Netherlands: Attestation and legalization of birth certificates and marriage certificates takes a long time. This is one of the requirements for work permits. Work permits processing takes a minimum of 3 months. Business visa is restricted for 2 weeks period only. Direct faxing of Invitation letter to the Embassy is required. Austria: Attestation and legalization of birth certificates and marriage certificates are taking a long time. This is one of the requirements for work permits. Spain: Work permits take a very long time, ranging from 6 months to 9 months. Legalization of documents time consuming. Ireland/Finland/ Italy: Family re-unions take longer time and require resident permits. This becomes an issue at the time of posting married people for long-term projects. Need for simplification of visa/immigration/permit related procedures. Recommendations: Simplification of the movement of software professionals by sanctioning visas within a short time. Reduce the documentation needs within the security framework for IT professionals. Avoid double taxation, and social security taxes through bilateral arrangements. Issue separate 'Professional Service' visa for IT professionals with minimal restriction of movement across EU. Issue separate visas for short term work up to 180 days. Some concession should be given to renowned IT companies or member of the local chambers to shorten the visa duration. The Technology Services Consulting companies who will be most competitive in meeting the challenges are those, which can compete on cost, speed, quality and expertise. The key challenge will be to realize the emerging opportunities in the global market and success will come to companies who can align themselves to their customers and shareholders. It is the speed with which we move that will separate the winners of the day. This necessitates the company to be ready with necessary visas to depute its resources on-call at its branch offices and client sites in different countries.