Earn $23,591 annually for employment visa: Govt. to foreigners

Mumbai: It is now mandatory for any foreign worker to have an annual salary above Rs. 11 lakh to get an Indian employment visa. A Ukrainian citizen has approached the Bombay High Court against the ministry of external affairs, challenging a policy that mandates a minimum annual salary of $25,000 (over Rs. 11 lakh) as compulsory requirement for getting an employment visa, reports Nauzer K Bharucha of the Economic Times.



Many companies across the country hire foreigners legally at lower salaries though it's not a publicized fact. Stelmakh Leonid Lulia, 25, was not granted visa by the Indian embassy in Kiev, Ukraine. She explains that her job at J P Morgan will lapse if she does not join in a week's time. "This is a sensitive constitutional matter on foreigners' right to employment and will have wide ramifications on foreign employees in the Indian services industry," says Prashant Uchil, Stelmakh's counsel. The matter is expected to come up on Friday before a division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice S C Dharmadhikari for urgent relief.

On June 3, she made an application to the Indian embassy in Kiev for an employment visa along with all supporting documents of her employer. "Petitioner submits that she was curtly told by the consul officer at the embassy that she would not be granted employment visa as the rule has been introduced from April 2010 mandating a salary in India equivalent to $25,000 per annum for issuance of an employment visa," it said.

"It is for the embassy to give adequate notice of such drastic change so that applicants of such visas as also employers may plan accordingly," she said. The petition has also said this `unreasonable' classification of people earning less than $25,000 and more than $25,000 is "violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which applies to foreigners also". It has also asked the court to decide whether the denial of employment visa by the respondent is illegal and went against the tenets of international law governing free movement and work opportunities
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