Archive November 2019

A result of the growth in the commercial relationship between India and Finland, the exchange of goods and services have crossed about USD 2.5 billion. Given the improvement in the trade between India and Finland, the rate of issuance of work visas has increased. Therefore, for better bilateral trade, Finland is now willing to reduce the existing processing time from 52 days to as little as 2 weeks by next year.

According to an interview given to the PTI, the Employment Minister of Finland, Timo Harakka has mentioned that it is a plan of the government to reduce the Finland work visa processing time to about 15 days. This change is supposed to draw more skilled Indian software professionals to the country.

"For these expert visas and for these expert work permits, which require a certain (level of) income, but are also on the express lane on permits, we are aiming to get these things handled in one or two weeks," Harakka said to PTI.

"We are looking to shorten the time frame. This can be achieved next year because we are shifting the whole process of immigration -- work-based and study-based immigration -- to my Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment from the Interior Ministry," he added.

Since the court’s refusal to abolish the rule formulated during the Obama-era, that is, the spouses of H-1B visa holders can work in America, it has been a relief to the Indians in the US, even for time-being.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.

The H1-B visa is a long-term visa that is issued to the workers by the US companies hiring them in their firms. Particularly the Indian women have been the beneficiaries of this rule and this has been objectioned by US workers. This is now supported by the Trump administration and is also willing to strike it down.

This rule was put forth by the ex-president of US, President Barack Obama in the year 2015. The rule has allowed work permits to certain H-4 visa holders, mainly the spouses of H-1B work visa holders instead of them waiting for their Green Card to work in the US.

"Accordingly, we reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion," said the federal court on the lawsuit filed by Saves Jobs USA.

Druk Yul - Land of the Thunder Dragon, Bhutan is one of the major budget tourist attractions for Indians to visit and the Bhutan visa has been free of cost as well. However, as per the recently drafted tourism policy, the Bhutan tourist visa is about to get expensive for Indians, Maldivians and Bangladeshis. This draft has been prepared by the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) and is yet to be finalised by the Bhutanese Cabinet in December.

The decision of putting a price on the Bhutan visa was taken due to the tourists flooding the country. According to the figures mentioned by the Hindu in the year 2018, out of the 2,74,000 tourists in Bhutan, 1,80,000 were Indians. 

The latest draft was discussed by Bhutanese Foreign Minister Tandi Dorji with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Delhi on Monday. As per the new policy, Indians will now have to pay a Sustainable Development Fee along with the visa processing fee.

According to a study, in the third quarter of 2019-2020, the rejection rate of the H1-B has increased significantly. The US administration led by President Donald Trump has made it harder for the Indian techies to get a job in the States. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has rejected a considerably higher number of applications this year showing a three times increment from 6 per cent in 2015 to 24 per cent in 2019.

A notable hit was taken by the technology firms in India as the H1-B covered a major part of these companies. According to the analysis, the denial rates in the IT companies have been as high as 30 per cent in the first three quarters of 2019-20. These rates never crossed 7 per cent until 2015-16.

This sudden increase in the denials is considered to be a result of an increase in the legal standards by the USCIS and there seems to have been lack of evidence in the rejected applications.

Indian tech giants Cognizant, Wipro, Accenture, Infosys and Capgemini who have about 70 per cent of the H1-B visa holders, have been devastated with these high rejection rates. However, the effects of the rejection rates are not limited to the Indian talent being hired, but the profits of the company will take a hit as well.