Will Indian IT benefit from Biden presidency?

As the President-elect of the United States Joe Biden is all set to be sworn in as the 46th President of the world's largest economy, the Indian IT industry is pinning high hopes on a liberal immigration and work permit policy. And this is not surprising given the Donald Trump administration's series of moves, making it difficult to move IT engineers to work on onsite projects in the US. Trump and his administration pursued 'America First' policy to revive the industrial sector and expand the technology segment. These policy moves were aimed at generating jobs for local citizens in the US.

Under Trump's presidency, the country brought in several administrative measures to discourage temporary work visas such as H-1B and H-2B among others. Firstly, the administration increased the fees for non-immigrant visas apart from delaying the process for approval. As the Covid pandemic roiled the globe, the Trump administration restricted foreign nationals to come on work visas till December last year in the first phase. On the verge of the New Year, this restriction was extended by another 90 days till March 31 of 2021.

Taking another parting shot affecting green cards, H-1B, and other similar work visas, the Trump administration this week raised the wages by approximately 30 per cent across the board. It means the Indian IT firms now have to cough up higher wages for employees working in the US. No wonder, the rejection rates of H-1B visa applications shot up during these past years. The US Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) data showed that except for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), visa denial rates were higher than the average denial rate of 21 per cent for the first three-quarters of the fiscal.

Against this backdrop, Biden's presidency is being eagerly awaited as hopes are building up for reversing some of the past decisions. Experts are of the opinion that norms with regard to wage hikes and higher visa application fees are likely to be reversed by the Biden administration. This optimism stems from the fact that Biden was always liberal towards immigration norms as reflected in his tenure as the vice president under the Obama administration.

As Obama's presidency is considered as the golden period for immigration, the Biden administration is expected to follow this legacy. Even Biden's campaign promised to ease norms for allowing talented individuals to work in the US. At a time when the global economy is badly bruised by the ongoing Covid pandemic, the revival of the US economy hinges on the faster growth of its multi-national corporations (MNCs). And these MNCs require Indian talent for putting them back on the growth trajectory.

Hopefully, the Biden administration will be mindful of this fact, which can benefit both the US economy and the Indian IT industry. But the billion-dollar question is whether it will happen. It's not easy to pursue pro-immigration policies in the US given the growing racial divide as reflected in the recent attack on Capitol.