Eighteen American information technology professionals have filed a civil lawsuit against its former employer, Cognizant, for replacing them with people from India who were hired by the IT major on H-1B visas.
A top American Senator, who visited New Delhi earlier this month, vowed to look into the "disproportionate number" of H-1B visa being denied from India, amid concerns over the increase in certain categories of visa fees.
The United States has said outsourcing to India was 'unavoidable' and that it was actively considering increasing the H1B visas for Indian workers.
The changes if legalised would have a detrimental effect on the functioning of Indian tech companies in the US and also small and medium-sized contractual farms in the IT sector, which are mostly owned by Indian Americans.
The US move to reduce the number of H1B visas to 65,000 from 195,000 will affect the Indian information technology industry in the long run, Kiran Karnik
In a proposal that will hit Indian IT companies the most, US software giant Microsoft Corporation has suggested a whopping fee of $10,000 (over Rs 5 lakh) for a new category of H-1B visas and $15,000 (more than Rs 7.5 lakh) for permanent residency or Green Card.
As the United States plans to reduce the number of H1-B visas to 65,000 from 195,000, India's apex body National Association of Software and Service Companies sought to cap it between 120,000 and 130,000
H-1B visa programme has over the years brought hundreds of thousands of Indian skilled professionals to the United States.
Several Indians who arrived with an H-1B visa at Newark and John F Kennedy airports were deported based on a new rule, immigration attorneys and activists have reported. The new rule stipulates that those who arrive on a work visa should 'arrive at the place of work'.
The H-1B visas coveted by highly-skilled professionals mainly from India appear to be losing its sheen thanks to the economic downturn in the US when for the first time in years there were fewer takers even one week after authorities began accepting applications.
All advanced degree petitions not selected then became part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit.
The Republican Study Committee of the House of Representatives, in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, appealed to them to take up the legislation and pass it in the next few months. The panel called for an increase in the number of H-1B visas from the current 65,000 to 115,000 and for 20 per cent built-in annual increase.
The US Chamber of Commerce urges US lawmakers to revamp job-based Green Card and H-1B programmes.
Getting the popular work visa will become tougher for Indian-Americans.
This measure to double the number of temporary visas to H-1B skilled-workers to 115,000 -- with an option of raising the cap 20 per cent more each year -- was buried in the Senate's giant 300-page Immigration Bill that got approved 12-6 on Tuesday.
Applications for H-1B work visa for the fiscal year 2013 would be accepted from April 2.
This is the first time that the cap is reached on the first day of receiving the applications on April 2.
GST 2.0 may cushion consumers against US tariffs, but like the 2019 corporate tax cut, it risks being another tactical fix rather than a structural growth strategy, expects Debashis Basu.
This April, visa applications to be issued for the US financial year beginning October saw a 50 per cent drop over last April.
The proposed changes are forward-looking and non-specific, said Nasscom
Indian IT firms - which have to incur an additional burden of about $400 million annually - have called it "discriminatory".
Lower numbers signal that that companies, especially the technology services firms, are steadily reducing the dependency on non-immigrant visas.
United States, the largest market for the $282 billion Indian IT sector, is a "wild card" for the industry, lobby grouping Nasssom's president Rajesh Nambiar said on Monday. Speaking to reporters Nambiar said the tariff threats by the US may turn out to be the biggest headwind for the sector. "Broadly, if you were to look at the headwinds, the biggest unknown there would be the tariffs and the impact of what happens in the US market," Nambiar said.
"We will fight to protect every last American life," Trump
Proposals to allow more high-technology foreign workers into the US are gaining ground in Congress despite assertions by labour and anti- immigrant lobbies that plenty of Americans are available to fill the jobs.
The H-1B work visas for highly skilled professionals have been most beneficial from IT sector professionals from India.
'Of course, people will have to carry documents all the time. There is overall uncertainty in living in the US.'
As the US gets tougher with visas, the prayers of US-bound devotees in India are getting more fervent, and their purse strings looser. Called Visa Hanuman temples (there are half a dozen all over India), some of them ask for a 'fee'.
This is not a new rule, but very few people know about it.
Indians are the main beneficiaries of the H-1B visas, which bring in the best of the talent and brains from across the world. Highly skilled professionals from India walk away with the overwhelming number of H-1B visas - which is Congressional mandated 65,0000 every year and another 20,000 for those who received higher education from the US.
The companies experienced a drop of 5,436 approved petitions (37 per cent) in 2016 as compared to previous year, a report by the National Foundation for American Policy, a Washington-based non-profit think-tank, said.
IT services major Infosys on Thursday reported 11.46 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 6,806 crore for December quarter FY25 and raised its guidance on the back of growth in financial services and manufacturing. The company had logged a profit of Rs 6,106 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
In a latest report on immigration, US Chamber of Commerce, which is world's largest chamber with more than 3 million members, asserted that such an allegation against Indian companies is 'hyperbole'.
Among IT services firm, Cognizant witnessed over 60 per cent of its initial applications rejected, followed by Capgemini, Accenture, Wipro, and Infosys. In 2018, the top six Indian firms got just 16 per cent or 2,145 H1B work permits.
In President Donald Trump's big priority bill, there is a proposal for a 5 percent excise tax on remittance transfers that would cover more than 40 million people, including those holding green cards and H1B visas.
Export-led Indian IT sector is not directly hit by Trump's tariff order on goods, but there could be worrisome indirect bearings on it arising out of possible slowdown in decision-making and GDP growth in America over higher tariffs, which may then cloud demand from specific verticals, according to some analysts.
The lawsuit has been filed by American Immigration Council and American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Ahead of Trump's inauguration here on January 20, the debate on foreign guest workers visas for highly skilled professionals, the H-1B, has intensified which has literally created divisions in both the Democratic and the Republican parties.
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