The American Embassy School has come under the scanner as a fallout of the retaliatory steps taken by New Delhi to pare down the privileges of US diplomats in India over the December 12 arrest and strip-search of Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York.
As part of a deal to defuse the situation, Khobragade has since returned to India after New Delhi declined to waive her diplomatic immunity despite her indictment by a New York grand jury on charges of visa fraud and underpaying her nanny.
Several American teachers, who are spouses of US diplomats, reportedly work at the American school without legal work permits in violation of Indian laws.
The American Embassy School handout "notes that India has placed restrictions on the number of tax-free visas available to school employees".
"So, if you are a teaching couple," the handout says, "we usually have the male spouse apply for the 'employment' visa and the female spouse be noted as 'housewife' on the visa application," the Times report said.
Referring to the Times report India's external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin described these as "serious issues relating to visa and tax matters" that India "will examine them very carefully."
