Aspiring to Work in India? – You Need to have minimum salary of 11 Lakh to get Indian work visa!
Just a couple of days back we had a highly debatable topic from Ankit on whether Indian outsourcing is a real threat to America in terms of job losses – And, indeed, he had some intriguing supporting data to back his views on the topic. But, this time around I’ve caught up with a similar issue but from the other side of the story.
Recently, Indian embassy at Kyiv (Ukraine) has rejected the request for an employment visa for a Ukraine citizen who claims to have got a job offer in India. The report further says that Ministry of External Affairs has mandated that the employment visa can be provided only to those expatriates working in India holding a minimum salary structure of USD 25000 (over 11 lakhs).
The woman claims that the officer at the embassy had reasoned out that the new rule has been introduced from April 2010 mandating a salary in India equivalent to USD 25000 per annum for issuance of an employment visa.
In my opinion this issue could have wide ramification on the foreign employees working in Indian companies. If at all the report (or for that matter the claims made by the Ukraine citizen) is authentic in nature, the Ministry of External Affairs needs to review this strange policy decision based on the employee’s salary structure rather than its potential.
Think of it from the other angle affecting Indian employees! What if the same policy structure is proposed by giant western economies against the Indians employees having a larger say in the day-to-day corporate affairs of MNCs?
The fact of the matter remains that more Indians are involved in the outsourcing and outbound jobs, than the inbound job opportunities garnered by the foreign workers.
At a time when the Indian government is strongly advocating free trade and services on the global podium, Manmohan Singh government needs to come out clean without any dichromatic policy matters to enlighten a clear cut agenda for the country.
At the same time, alongside the current recover-led global situation, inbound foreign talent is not so much an undesirable proposition, while it helps to keep a check on the high levels of attrition in almost all major industries, especially led by the outsourcing boom. The same can also be justified for building healthy competitive pressures within the Indian shores to provide that extra push for enhanced productivity.
Don’t you feel this issue is really worth making noise, at a time when we Indians willingly raise our voices against Obama’s anti-outsourcing policy?
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I would be interested in knowing whether people of Indian origin who have moved back to India ( OCI card ) and have been living here and working for sometime, would come under this law.
This sort of rule is common in many countries and it is mainly due to tax authorities. It has been a common practice where employee working in India is paid a token acceptable salary in India and balance is paid overseas for the work done in India. This is a reasonable requirement or the lower salary should be justified. It is also a accepted policy that foreigners can only be employed for jobs with special qualifications or skills or for a specific reason. Otherwise wherever local talent is available no employment visas are issued by all sane governments.
US has the same for anyone travelling – for a job visa, you need to have meet the salary scale and in typical case of a software engineer it would range around 70000USD and if you are going as dependent, depended should show a bank statements with 10000USD for three months, if you are visiting someone, then you should have show enough money in your account to cover your expense and the insurance – and in a way, I consider this as very professional and good to see India has reached this level.
ha ha ha. every country have their own stupid set of rules to control immigration. It was the peak when everyone was trying to go to US for jobs in 2000, the reason for visa rejection is as silly as you don’t have enough English proficiency. If at all India puts some cap over immigration on income basis, thats a positive intent to not let some non professional or cheap labour (which we have abundant) to settle down in India. People from developing world are willing to travel India for the new set of jobs opportunities. To keep a check on terrorists not to enter the country in the name of jobs, to allow only valid professionals who are helpful for the growth of the country. Infact this is one of the best way to control immigration than saying “you are from that country, we don’t want you” or “your job is not one of the necessities of India” or “you don’t know hindi” etc… Guess you understood the intent of India behind such policies. Moreover Indian policies are not silly. Indian embassy has to think of overall security of the nation still not providing any rational thought.
It needs only professionals. Not cheap labour. So such caps make sense. If same policy is proposed by the gaint western countries, the only qualified immigrants will be Indians. Because the largest earning group of US or UK are Indians. Indian salaries in western countries are far higher than the normal people over there. Because they have talent. So taken up by them. The same way India want talent.
Hi.. i feel sorry if this is happening with outsiders (citizens like ukrain) ,who are willing to come and work in india. 11 lakh is really a big amount for indian economy propective.
it is really bad .i think 5 lakh is enough for this kind of limit .it will help both countries for bilateral trade and mutual growth.
Its initially easy to consider this law biased against foreign workers and ask, “what if they do the same with Indian workers”? However, I think its a wise decision by India to have a minimum salary cap for foreign workers.
In reality, most countries have some sort of minimum salary cap for a job, or a family visa. In Australia, where I live, to get a visa for a spouse, one must earn a minimum of $25000 pa. Similar rules exist in the middle east.
India has enough home grown talent, remember MNC’s advertise in India and come to India to recruit for their countries, Indian MNC’s rarely go overseas to recruit for India. Are you telling me that for 6lacs pa, JP MORGAN did not find a suitable Indian candidate? The best person for the role was a Ukranian with virtually nil knowledge of the Indian market? Perhaps it was a decision made with personal bias to employ this person.
The western MNC’s needed our people, and they hire on their terms, we should also hire on OUR terms only when we need someone.