Regarding H-1B visas, Shringla said Indian authorities raised the issue during dialogue with their U.S. counterparts on Tuesday and stressed that Indian professionals contribute significantly to the high-tech sector in the United States. “Overall, SSAs offer three benefits, including preventing double social security contributions by workers, simply transferring benefits, and aggregating contribution periods in two countries to avoid loss of benefits,” Rao said. “The United States has formalized totalization pacts with countries like Canada and Australia. India also hopes to be on this list,” the official added. India supports the proposed discussions with the US Social Security Administration (SSA) on the long-outstanding totalization agreement, believing that the two countries` systems are now more compatible than before. The deal could help Indian companies in the U.S. save up to $4 billion in annual social security filings. “The U.S.
view is that due to the incompatibility of the two social security systems, the totalization agreement may not be plausible in the current context,” says the joint CII-USIBC report, which calls for an analysis study of the feasibility and prospects of an agreement. According to industry estimates, Indian companies, mainly in the information technology sector, lose up to $4 billion in annual deposits in U.S. Social Security, which will never be reimbursed. . . .
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