Hyderabad: The US decision to suspend the H-1B visa’s premium processing temporarily, gave bleak hope to thousands of anxious visa applicants. Among the Indian IT professionals applying for visa, a large number hail from the two Telugu States.
Mr G. Gaurav of a Hyderabad MNC told Deccan Chronicle, “I applied last year also, but the chances of getting picked were bleak because the premium processing option was removed last year. This year, I’ve filed again but I’m keeping my hopes low due to the increased scrutiny and premium processing being suspended again.”
Another IT professional Anurag Basu said, “The move would adversely impact domestic software exporters as well as multinational firms who send engineers to work on projects in the US. Tier-I Indian IT service firms largely use the premium processing category for H-1B visa for their employees. This means IT service firms cannot send their employees on urgent projects.”
With this, all employers who wanted to send their staff on H-1B visa would have to plan for even longer ahead.
“This suspension might have a short-term impact and it clearly hinted at a tougher immigration policy in the US, which was the biggest market for Indian IT companies,” said an MNC employee Sravan Kumar.
