US accuses Indian blue chip companies of violating H-1B visa norms

Washington: The United States has accused Indian blue chip IT firms of violating the H-1B visa norms. According to the US government, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Cognizant get the lion's share of H-1B visas, through unfair means, by putting extra tickets into the lottery system which the Trump administration wants to replace with a 'merit-based' immigration policy.

An American government official stated that a small number of giant outsourcing firms have flooded the system with applications, which increases their chances of success in the lottery draw that will allow them to get huge number of H-1B visas.

"The top recipients of the H-1B visa are companies like Tata, Infosys, and Cognizant. They will apply for a very large number of visas, more than they get, by putting extra tickets in the lottery raffle, if you will, and then they will get the lion's share of visas," the senior official stated.

He further stated that these top three blue chip companies have an average wage for H-1B visas between $60,000 and $65,000 (a year).

What these top three ventures said:

Infosys--

• We are deeply committed to help US clients to explore technology for transforming their businesses, empowering their employees in new ways, and become even more competitive but, to do this, we continue to invest in the local communities in which we operate.
• These investments include hiring local American top talent, bringing education and training to our clients to shrink the skills gap in the US and working with policy-makers to foster innovation within states and across the country.
• It's our endeavour to help clients leverage the best US talent together with the best global talent, to drive economic growth in the US, ensure the US continues to be at the forefront of innovation, and bring skills and education in the new technologies that will transform our world.

TCS and Cognizant remained unavailable to comment.