Is H-1B debate hurting Indian IT cos?

NEW DELHI: It seems to be a case of misplaced apprehensions. As the debate over Indian outsourcing firms pocketing most H-1B visas rages, their share of the temporary worker visas has actually come down by over 8,500.

Leading Indian IT companies Infosys, Wipro, TCS and Satyam received fewer H-1B approvals in 2007 compared to 2006. For instance, top-ranked H-1B user Infosys got 4,559 visas for the financial year 2007 starting October 2007, against 4,908 in 2006.

Similarly, Wipro, which got 4,002 visas in 2006, received 2,567 visas in 2007. Satyam got 1,396 approvals in 2007 against 2,880 in 2006, while TCS got 797 approvals in 2007, a significant fall from 3,046 in 2006.

Allegations of foreign companies, especially Indian firms, using H-1B visas to replace qualified American workers surfaced last year when US senators Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin wrote to nine Indian IT companies.

These firms were among the top 20 H-1B users in fiscal 2006 with 19,512 visas — 30 per cent of the total 65,000 workers’ visas. The senators queried these companies on their use of these visas and layoffs in the US.