The bill introduced by US Senators Mr. Chuck Grassley and Mr. Dick Durbin on Thursday is expected to have grim implications for the Indian IT firms, as it aims at curtailing the use the of H-1B and L1 visas, thereby limiting the competitiveness of the offshore vendors.

The bill proposes to alter the H-1B and L1 visa stipulations in such a way that US employers would be prohibited from employing additional H-1B and L-1 guest-workers in case more than 50 per cent of their workers are H-1B and L-1 visa holders. The implementation of the proposal in its current form could cause a big dent in the profitability of the Indian IT services market.

The proposed US visa curbs would have a significant bearing on all the big IT companies having branch offices and subsidiaries in the US, which are staffed for the most part by H-1B visa holders. No wonder they are terming the program as “unfair!”

The move has expectedly evoked widespread criticism from the Indian IT industry. While Pratik Kumar, Executive VP of Wipro’s HR division, said that the legislation would be “an antithesis to globalization and a restrictive trade practice,” Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said: “This is certainly not in line with the US President’s stand against protectionism at the recent London G20 meeting.”