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Bangalore: Oversubscription for US H1-B visas is likely to impact Indian IT
bellwether Infosys Ltd as it would have to hire locally more
techies for onsite projects, a top official said Friday.
"One of the uncertainties we face this fiscal (2013-14) is due to
oversubscription for US job visas. As we may not get all the visas
we have applied for, local recruitment will go for onsite work,"
Infosys chief executive S.D. Shibulal told reporters here.
Applications for this year's quota of 65,000 H1-B non-immigrant
visas for Indian IT workers got oversubscribed within a week of
opening up early this month. As a result, visas will be allotted
through lottery rather than on quota basis.
"Though we will have adequate number of visas, we may have to hire
more to meet local requirements, especially in niche areas, which
will increase cost of operation. We may have to also go for
sub-contracting work where niche skills would be required to
execute specific projects," Shibulal pointed out.
According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (UCIS)
data, of the top 12 firms which bagged more than 40,000 of the
134,740 H-1B visas in 2012 all had a strong India presence. They
included Cognizant, in first place with 9,281 visas, followed by
Tata Consulting Services (7,469), Infosys (5,600), Wipro (4,304),
Accenture (4,037), HCL America (2,070), Mahindra Satyam (1,963).
Indian professionals also took the largest one-third piece of the
H1-B visa pie in 2009 making up the second largest group of people
making the US their temporary home.
Accounting for one-tenth of non-immigrant residents in the US,
364,757 Indians were only second to Mexicans who made up 11.7
percent at 403,793, but 123,002 H1-B visa holders from India gave
them the largest 36.3 percent share among professionals.
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