U.S. L1 visa rejections at 40 per cent

A group of senior industry representatives from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) were in town this week to discuss numerous positive developments on the trade and investment front with United States Senators and Congressmen. However, they also pressed home the point that visa rejection rates, as high as 40 per cent for the L-1 visa, needed to come down.

Speaking to The Hindu B. Muthuraman, CII President, said that the rejection rate of L-1 visas had jumped to its current level from 7-8 per cent. “It is very high. To our minds this is also not a good thing for the U.S., so we have taken it up with them. We have a positive response,” he said. Mr. Muthuraman further said that in the U.S. also there was a certain amount of protectionism. The recent “Stop Outsourcing and Create American Jobs 2011 Act” is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, he noted, adding, “I think anyone whose economy is in a state where the U.S. economy is, is probably bound to take a decision of that nature. But I do not think it is going to affect the India U.S. relationship in the long term on that basis.”

Speaking of the domestic business environment in India, Mr. Muthuraman admitted that several major corruption scandals had slowed down decision making in several key economic policy areas. Yet he said that he was enthused by the fact that in the last three months a number of important bills had been tabled, including the Land Acquisition Bill and the Mining Bill. Also, there were numerous discussions underway in other areas such as getting FDI into multi-brand retail, he said, and that gave him hope.

“If India can grow at 7.5 per cent with lots of problems on infrastructure and governance and all these reforms not taking place, with all this [improving] that 7.5 per cent can easily become 9-9.5 per cent,” he said.

The meetings in Washington are part of an ongoing effort by institutions such as CII to deepen U.S.-India interactions at the business-to-business and state-to-state levels. T. T. Ashok, Southern Region head for CII, noted that a number of delegations from Indian states such as Andhra Pradesh had visited the U.S. Similarly, Mr. Ashok said, a U.S. delegation from Maryland, including Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, would be visiting India soon.

In this context, U.S. Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs Reta Jo Lewis told

The Hindu that the State Department was “delighted to see state officials such as the Governor of Maryland go to India with a large delegation — very historic for Maryland — to begin to develop and expand their relationship with states in India.” Ms. Lewis added, “We at the Department of State are continuing to encourage, explore and explain what great opportunities there are in India.”