Forget H1-B Visas…Can You Apply for an Indian Work Visa?

Posted by Anthony on Thursday, February 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment

outsourcing-ocean

In a baffling reversal of fortune, IBM has offered its newly laid-off employees the grand opportunity of international employment under the local terms and conditions. Bangalore, here we come!

Those unfortunate souls now have the opportunity to compare their unemployment benefits with their Indian counterparts’ wages. To give you an idea, California’s benefits for those who made over $11,674.01 in the last quarter (which is pretty much all IT workers) are $450/week. That’s $23,400/year, or $11.25/hr. Payscale indicates that the median self-reported hourly wage is Rs 1,000 (USD $20.50) for a Sr. Software Engineer/Developer/Programer.

Sounds like a screaming deal.

In case you’re interested, Morgan Spurlock, the man behind “Super Size Me”, has a TV show called 30 Days, an in one of their episodes available through iTunes, documents 30 days of a laid-off US IT worker finding employment in India. It’s also available at Amazon: 30 Days: The Complete Second Season
Fascinating.