H-1B loses its weightage among Indian techies
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 04 June 2010, 22:48 IST   |    15 Comments
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H-1B loses its weightage among Indian techies
Silicon Valley/ New Delhi: The reason behind the drastic fall of H-1B visas is the Employ American Workers Act, a key legislation that stresses on jobs for U.S. citizens. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has received only 18,000 applications until May for the U.S. financial year beginning October. This indicates a repeat of last year when the flow of petitions towards the quota of 65,000 was laboured. Contrast to this, three years ago when the quota was exhausted within a day. The USCIS was then flooded with 1.5 lakh applications and had to resort to a lottery system for allotments. H-1B visas have lost their weightage in the past few years after an immense political backdrop, reports Harsimran Julka from the Economic Times Bureau. "Many Indian IT companies are not applying for H-1 B visas," said Avinash Vashishtha, CEO of Tholons, an offshore advisory firm. The reason behind the drastic fall of H-1B visa is the Employ American Workers Act (EAWA), a key legislation that stresses on jobs for US citizens, to dropping wage rates, to limping recovery and high unemployment rates in America. Last year, Indian IT companies collected only 4,762 approved visas between them against 20,530 in 2006. Those were companies like Infosys Technologies, Wipro Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), or offshoots of U.S. firms like Cognizant and IBM and there were only four Indian companies among the top H-1B applicants last year compared to eight in 2006. TCS had received 3,046 H-1B visas in 2006 and was conspicuous by its absence from the table in 2009. Early indications are that the Indian interest is tepid this year too because the enthusiasm of IT companies to extend the stay of employees has waned significantly. That has left Indian software workers worried. Software lobby group Nasscom said Indian IT companies are increasingly hiring U.S. citizens, which has led to a drop in their penchant for H-1B visas. "Traditionally, lots of Indian companies wanting to hire U.S. citizens could not do so because of high costs and difficulty in finding talent. The downturn has reversed the trend," said Ameet Nivsarkar, Vice President, Nasscom. TCS, for example, hired 225 U.S. based associates for its Cincinatti centre in Ohio, scaling its American head count to 300. "We did not feel a need to file for H-1B visas last year. We had already made provisions for our onsite needs," said a TCS spokesperson. The company is likely to keep off H-1B this year too. "It's a good insurance against any more restrictive visa policies, which encourages local employment. It also positions us well for certainly state government business," said Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro. "Both American and Indian firms are wary of applying for an H-1B as the government is going over applications with a fine-tooth comb. If companies have not hired U.S. citizens over one year or offered the same job to them, a visa application has a high chance of getting rejected," said an immigration consultant based near Union Square in San Francisco. "And rejections spoil a company's brand name," he said, requesting anonymity as he has had a large number of rejection cases this year. IT watchers presage up to 20,000 workers returning to India in a year. Many H-1B visa holders are said to be posting resumes on Indian recruitment websites. An upshot of visa non-renewal is workers having to dispose of assets prematurely. A notable example is mortgaged cars dumped at airports. The lure of H-1B visas is also fading because of a sharp drop in wages. A job in India suddenly appears more attractive, given that it offers up to a 14 percent annual growth against a three percent rise at US tech firms.

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