Immigration overhaul will have positive impact: Nasscom

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), on Friday, said it welcomed the proposed Executive Action by U.S. President Barack Obama on the immigrants in that country.

Nasscom, in a statement stated that the new move by Mr. Obama will positively impact Indian residents and skilled workers in the U.S.

With the proposed Executive Action around 4-5 million undocumented immigrants will be protected from deportation while streamlining procedures to retain students and skilled workers who have been trained in the U.S. Some of the salient features of the Executive Action include modernising and streamlining visa processes, H-1B changes including visas for foreign entrepreneurs, faster green cards processing for skilled individuals, enable spouses to gain work authorisation during their time in the U.S. among others.

Commenting on the development, Nasscom President R. Chandrashekhar said: “This is a positive development, especially for high skilled employees and entrepreneurs living in the U.S. However, we await specific details of the initiatives and understand that it would take time to phase them all in. We are extremely happy to note that these policies did not reflect the pointers from the bill proposed earlier. Nasscom will continue to engage with the U.S. government to maintain smooth trade relations in the coming years.”

The software trade body with its members, advisors, and the Government of India has been constantly conveying the importance of India-centric companies and Indian talent to the U.S. economy.

“Nasscom believes that these measures will help to attract and retain talent in the U.S. by addressing some of the operational and social issues thereby alleviating skills shortages to some extent,” the statement added.