Except Chinese, 1500 expats asked to leave India

By siliconindia   |   Friday, 23 October 2009, 15:05 IST
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Except Chinese, 1500 expats asked to leave India
Bangalore: While India is in the process of modifying its rules on work visas, around 1500 expats in the country, excluding the low-skilled Chinese workers, have already received notice to leave India. The new measures might be aimed at low-skilled Chinese workers, but they certainly inflict collateral damage on expats from other nationalities. Hundreds of senior and mid-level executives of multinationals are scrambling to comply with the new requirements and get their business visas converted to work visas. "About 3000 foreign nationals have re-applied for visas in the right category now. Those who fail to get it must leave the country by October 31. After all if foreign national is employed in India, he must have the right kind of visa," said Home Secretary, GK Pillai. Economic Times spoke to three employees affected by the new rules (have received notice to leave country), but none wanted to speak on record for this report. All of them were preparing to leave the country, and though they want to come back, they fear that there will be delays getting the new category of visas. India has, however, said that it will issue replacement visa within 45 days. There are also some tax implications to these new rules. Often these individuals were paid in their home countries, despite working in India. Now their income, regardless of where the payment is made is subject to Indian taxation.