Bangalore: The increase in visa rejections to Indian IT firms is seriously affecting the onsite activities of these companies as they are unable to send employees abroad to their client locations and thus a huge delay is experienced in completing projects at the correct time.

"We promised a client in the Bay area (around San Francisco) that we would be sending 15 people from India to support it onsite. But we could send only three - the rest were denied visas," said the global sales head of an IT firm in Bangalore, who did not reveal his name. He also pointed out that the client was very disappointed at this as they had to rely on some other substitutes and that may be costlier and of inferior quality.

The Indian IT companies are forced to hire extra employers at the customer location, which requires an increase in payment of up to 60 percent, says an IT official. "It has a direct impact on our margins. For almost half a dozen clients, we have not been able to meet delivery commitments in time. On some occasions this even led to heated arguments with the clients,'' he said, reports Economic Times.

Many of the leading companies such as Wipro Technologies, TCS, Cognizant, HP, Intel, Microsoft and Accenture mentioned that the immigration authorities are exceeding the law in declining visas, in a letter to U.S President Barack Obama.

But there are few people who feel that Indian companies are also responsible for this injustice, "L1 is an austerity measure for companies today. They apply for L1 visas even when they require H-1 B visas. The consulates are aware of all these Indian tricks. Rejections happen due to this too," said Pradip Tukral, a visa consultant.