Imposition of higher Visa fee.

 Imposition of higher H-1B and L1 visa fee by USA will hurt the Indian IT companies who employ non–US citizens at their US offices at a cheaper cost thus boosting their profit margins. India has argued against this hike of visa fee citing it as a violation of GATS Mode 3 which deals with trans-boundary movement of professionals.

Indian IT companies are net foreign exchange earners and this hike would lower their profit margins and thus lower their tax payments which would reflect in India’s Current Account as deficit as well as Revenue Deficit.

India further argues that this hike in visa fees is discriminatory and against the ethos of WTO whereby nation states should work to lower tariff and non-tariff barriers. On one hand US is pushing forth Trade Facilitation Agreement to lower logistics costs but on the other hand is resorting to protectionist measures to safeguard her own domestic labour markets and to finance construction of the fence along it’s Mexican border.

The construction of the fence along the Mexican border has become a political issue as Presidential candidates want to stop illegal immigration from Mexico into US, stop drug trafficking (ex. methamphetamine) and put an end to drug cartels that have grown so rich over years that they have purchased arms and ammunition to protect their drug estates.

The construction of 3200 km long border fence in form of scanners, drones, concrete walls, barbed wire and police patrols would cost USD $8 Billion and for this purpose US Government has raked up the visa fee for non-immigrant category, leaving all other visa categories untouched.

By: Abhinav