Bangalore: NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) on May 23 feared more visa restrictions for IT (Information Technology) professionals in Europe and US in the face of economic slowdown, which would affect the domestic software industry.

"World economy is slow… job growth is slow. You are going to get these type of protectionist measures," NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik said.

"Any constricting of the visa process, in whatever name like more care, security and processing time, is bad for the industry," he said.

He said though domestic firms were outsourcing software work, on an average, 40 per cent of the work was done on site and any bottlenecks for the flow of people will affect the industry.

Early this week, a US politician introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives to stop firms from outsourcing their L-1 visa-holders to client sites. L-1 visa allows firms which have subsidiaries abroad to transfer from foreign countries to the US as intra-company transferees, subject to them having been employed with the company for at least six months.

Karnik said NASSCOM was working with the government for relaxations in the visa rules bilaterally with countries and under the GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariff) treaty in the WTO (World Trade Organisation).

"Talks are underway, but it is a slow process," he said.

PTI