No US visa is hampering trade, say Indore businessmen

INDORE: At a time when the US is focusing on “talk and trade” diplomacy with India to get their partnership back on track, administrative hindrances are discouraging Indore traders from developing their trade.
Problems are aplenty, the traders say. They are even not getting business trip visas to US. The US authorities reject their applications without giving any reason, say local businessmen who have been exporting their products to the country.
Siddharth Sethi, director of IT firm InfoBeans, said, “The success rate of getting US visa for business is merely 10-15%. It often bars us from bringing our US-based clients to India to show them our facility here and strike deals with them.”
Utkarsh Trivedi , director of a city-based listed technical textile firm Neo Corp, said, “We have started exporting our products to the US since 3-4 years. However, the norms for issuance of B-1 visa are quite rigid.” Shishir Deshmukh, HR head of a local IT firm Diaspark, said, “In case we are unable to get the B-1 (a type of the business visa) for our staff, then we are compelled to send less competent staff to the US for doing the job, which hampers our business prospects.”
Sanjay Kumar Nandecha, technology head of a city-based IT firm, said, “We are not told the ground on which our visa has been rejected. Once we are able to know the cause, then we will definitely try to improve things when we apply for the visa for the next time”. Karan Mittal, MD of an Indore-based steel manufacturing firm, said, “There is lack of adequate information for doing business with the US. There must be some nodal agency to guide traders.”
IMA president, Shamit Dave, said, ‘We are strong in SMEs. Also, we have brought the UK’s business delegation to India recently which has resulted in a number of agencies’ of UK-based firms opening their offices here. The same thing we want to do with US too.”
US commercial consul, Camille Richardson, said, “The number of US visas being issued to Indians has increased over past few years. Last year alone, we witnessed a 10% increase in visa issuance.”