UK may lose Indian IT professionals

In a meeting with Britain’s secretary of state for business, innovation and skills Vince Cable and Chancellor George Osborne, India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said that Indian IT professionals may relocate to other European countries in case their operations would be affected by tough visa rules Press TV reported.

Indian IT companies face problems transferring their IT experts and high skilled workers to their UK based operations under current visa rules as the professionals on intra company transfers to UK are treated as “prospective immigrants” by the UK Border Agency.

Sharma maintained that Indian professionals “cannot be treated as economic migrants” because they leave Britain after the fulfillment of their contractual obligations.

Moreover, Sharma referred to the Home Office’s decision to deny Indian students permission to work in the UK for two years after their courses are over.

Sharma said that the stoppage of post-study work permits to Indian students may force them to consider options to study in other countries, reported the Economic Times.

“He [Sharma] stressed that this development is expected to impact the UK universities where at present over 40,000 Indians students have been studying,” the newspaper quoted an official statement.