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Alexandra Patargia is a 26-year-old civil engineer from Greece. After an engineering degree from Athens, she completed her master’s degree in development administration and planning from London and is now keen on finding a job in India.

"I have been following the India growth story for the past couple of years. My qualifications in civil engineering and development should find a very good fit in India, I feel. Besides, India is on a growth path while European countries such as ours are not doing very well," she says. However, her job search in India has so far not yielded results.

The main reason for this is the $25,000 per annum lower limit that the Indian government has set for giving employment visas to skilled overseas workers. For Patargia, who has two years of work experience in Greece, an annual salary below $25,000 is acceptable. "I would like to work in India to gain experience. I’m willing to start with a lower salary. I know that in my kind of job, there will be an annual increase in the salary based on performance. However, the Indian government rules don’t allow that," she says.

Many young professionals like Patargia now want India on their CVs and the reason is not always mind-boggling entry level salaries. Mumbai-based lawyer Ashok Pratap, who has a growing clientele of foreigners looking for employment visas, sees the interest among young foreign professionals to work in India going beyond just good salaries.

"India is an emerging economy and is now attracting many young professionals who want to come here to experience a different work culture and a way of life. Often they are willing to work for salaries that are much lower than in their own countries," he says.

The Indian government had set the salary threshold limit of $25,000 a year for foreign nationals being sponsored by employers in India for an employment visa from November 2010. It includes salary and allowances paid to them in cash.

"There’s a huge number of low skilled and unskilled workforce in India and we have to cope with huge unemployment. Hence the salary threshold has been set which helps to differentiate between skilled and unskilled jobs. Different countries have different ways to protect their own workers and we have chosen this route instead of numeric caps," an Indian home ministry official told ET on Sunday.

The annual floor limit on income does not apply to specific categories of ethnic cooks, language teachers (other than English language), translators and staff working for the embassies and high commissions. Restricted Regime Companies that require foreign nationals with language skills often face problems when it comes to the interpretation of the fine print. "Foreign language skills required by certain sectors, such as the BPO industry, are not available in India. Individuals with foreign language skills are ready to work in India at reasonable salaries.

But the law requires them to do only language teaching and translation," says Mumbai-based immigration lawyer Poorvi Chothani. An example is that of a large BPO company, the subsidiary of a UK entity, which recently wanted to employ a Spanish national to handle client queries. While they found a Spanish national willing to work for a salary of about $12,000, the employment visa could not be processed because of the minimum salary requirement.

The lower salary threshold, in fact, is also applicable to women from different countries who come to India to work in the fields of modelling, advertising or films. For many Indian startups in niche areas of business, the minimum threshold for employment visas is proving to be a damper. Suheil Tandon, co-founder and partner of specialised sports management company Pro4Sport Solutions, feels that in the business of specialised sports coaching at the grass-roots level, employing foreign nationals is important. "There are not enough sports coaches and specialists in India.

In other countries, there are many young sportspersons who are well trained and many of them are willing to come and work for us in India. Some are also keen on coming to work as interns while they are finishing their training," says Tandon. India does not have the concept of an internship visa for foreign nationals. Project Visa Even though the Indian government has no plans currently to increase the categories under which the lower salary threshold will be relaxed for employment visa applicants, the project visa category within the employment visa regime, has come as a big benefit for the power and steel sectors.

Under the P visa, foreign nationals can come to India for execution of projects in the power and steel sectors. The visa is project specific but is not subject to the lower salary ceiling. "This visa facility was introduced to meet the huge demand from industry and helps companies to bring in semi-skilled or unskilled foreign workers for specific projects," the home ministry official told ET on Sunday. Not surprisingly, there’s a huge demand for the P visas and according to figures from the ministry of external affairs, there have been 1,000 P visas for the power sector and 400 for the steel sector issued within a year of the category being introduced.

"In the past, workers from certain regions - such as China - have faced a lot of problems in getting their employment visas. However, the P category has helped to iron out a lot of these problems," says Amitabh Singh, partner, Ernst & Young India, a consultancy.