Infosys under investigation for US Visa abuse

[Andy Nguyen]

The outcome of this investigation may have consequences to H1-B visa program, making it more expensive and difficult to get.

A giant Indian outsourcing company with thousands of employees in the United States is facing an expanding federal investigation prompted by claims from an American whistle-blower that it misused short-term visitors’ visas to bring in low-cost workers from India.

A State Department official in India said Infosys and other Indian companies had made use in recent years of an exception in the complex visa guidelines that allows them to send workers to the United States on B-1 visas for up to six months for certain short-term projects that might otherwise have required an H-1B visa. Since last year, the State Department has clamped down on the use of that exception and is considering whether to eliminate it, the official and several outsourcing executives in India said.

While denying Mr. Palmer’s claims, Infosys has noted that Indian employees with business visitor visas are a small part — less than 2 percent — of its teams in the United States. The company reports a total of 15,500 employees in this country, including 10,100 on H-1B visas. North American clients account for 65 percent of the company’s revenue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/us/22infosys.html?pagewanted=all

 

[Katrina]

Interesting article.....the article reflects changing attitudes towards immigrants and the job market in the USA. I am not sure if it will affect H1B's as Infosys was trying to work around it as they were difficult to obtain, it will definetely affect B1 visa and other temporary visa's. Infosys will definitely get a lot of audits and RFE's in future for any visa petitions they file.

I am not sure how whistle blower such as Mr. Palmer's manage to stay with their employers after they make such accusations about their employers. It really was not a smart idea for the indian executives to ask Palmer to get "creative" on working around the system. This is something that they should have directed at the smartest immigration attorney's in the country.

I am not surprised that the whistler blower comes from the deep south (Alabama) which was the epicentre of racial out break in the United States. At work he probably thinks, instead of having this so called Indians on B1 visa, i could have had my fellow Alabamians doing the same thing these Indians do.

It really doesnt make sense to go after legal visa holders whether they are temporary or permanent, the focus should be the ones with criminal backgrounds and preventing individuals with those backgrounds from coming in.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/06/21/global-visa-policies-a-game-changer-for-indian-it/

The visa issue is potentially becoming a game changer for the Indian IT industry, which takes many workers overseas for projects. But visa policy in client markets like the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Canada has, for the past 12-18 months, been veering towards greater oversight and more stringent rules, the report noted.

Rejection rates for works visas for some of the biggest Indian tech companies have soared to nearly 40%, up from a mere 5% 18 months ago, the report noted. At least one top tier IT company has not received a single work visa in either the short-term or long-term visa categories for its personnel in the last four and a half months, CLSA said. IT companies in India generate about 60% of their combined $50 billion annual revenue from U.S. clients.

Things aren’t much better in Europe. In April, the U.K. introduced a cap of 20,700 visas for the category usually used by Indian tech companies.

Switzerland, the fifth largest export market for Indian IT software services, has reserved nearly a third of the 12,000 work visas it issues annually for workers from the EU and introduced more limited term periods on the rest. Canada, which was being explored as a near-shore destination for US work, has increased procedural hurdles and made the process of procuring visas much tougher, CLSA added.

Most of the employees in the overseas offices of Indian IT companies are Indian nationals and so securing visas is critical to their ability to complete projects.

 

[bigbadwolf]

There are enough American (and European) IT workers -- many of them unemployed. The visa racket -- aided and abetted by giant firms like Microsoft -- has always been about exerting downward pressure on US wage levels and benefits and strengthening the bargaining hand of employers.

 

[logixwriter]

There are enough American (and European) IT workers -- many of them unemployed. The visa racket -- aided and abetted by giant firms like Microsoft -- has always been about exerting downward pressure on US wage levels and benefits and strengthening the bargaining hand of employers.

H1B is completely abused by Indian companies. Companies should not be allowed to have more than 10% on H1b in its paryol.

 

[logixwriter]

Interesting article.....the article reflects changing attitudes towards immigrants and the job market in the USA. I am not sure if it will affect H1B's as Infosys was trying to work around it as they were difficult to obtain, it will definetely affect B1 visa and other temporary visa's. Infosys will definitely get a lot of audits and RFE's in future for any visa petitions they file.

I am not sure how whistle blower such as Mr. Palmer's manage to stay with their employers after they make such accusations about their employers. It really was not a smart idea for the indian executives to ask Palmer to get "creative" on working around the system. This is something that they should have directed at the smartest immigration attorney's in the country.

I am not surprised that the whistler blower comes from the deep south (Alabama) which was the epicentre of racial out break in the United States. At work he probably thinks, instead of having this so called Indians on B1 visa, i could have had my fellow Alabamians doing the same thing these Indians do.

It really doesnt make sense to go after legal visa holders whether they are temporary or permanent, the focus should be the ones with criminal backgrounds and preventing individuals with those backgrounds from coming in.

H1B has nothing to do with racism. It was started for companies such as Google to attract high skill resource not for companies such has Infosys/TCS to bring low skill labor from India and replace an American Worker.

 

[bigbadwolf]

H1B is completely abused by Indian companies. Companies should not be allowed to have more than 10% on H1b in its paryol.

It's a racket that allows IT billionaires in both the US and India to make even more super-profits while packing Indian coders eight and ten to small apartments in the US at increasingly dismal wages. The Indians are willing to work for such wages meekly and docilely for long hours. The losers are American coders who've seen their pay go down (in real terms) and their prospects become bleaker over the decades. It's got nothing to do with bringing in high-class talent and everything to do with lowering wage costs and undermining the bargaining power of skilled labor (the US coders).

 

[logixwriter]

It's a racket that allows IT billionaires in both the US and India to make even more super-profits while packing Indian coders eight and ten to small apartments in the US at increasingly dismal wages. The Indians are willing to work for such wages meekly and docilely for long hours. The losers are American coders who've seen their pay go down (in real terms) and their prospects become bleaker over the decades. It's got nothing to do with bringing in high-class talent and everything to do with lowering wage costs and undermining the bargaining power of skilled labor (the US coders).

I agree with you. I do not know why there is no demonstration against exploitation of the H1B. Govt can easily arrange seminars in which high school graduates can be trained for 6 months or more in programming and they would be able to do 90% of the tasks that these H1Bs do. It will help unemployment little bit.