Indian IT companies avoid sending people abroad

Indian IT companies are restricting their request for H-1B visas this year. Even though exact figures are not known, it is understood that so far, Infosys, Wipro and TCS have recalled as many as 1000 workers each in the June quarter this year.

Infosys has applied for just 405 H-1B visas till this date for the financial year 2009-10, the count is lowest in recent years. "The number of visa applications this year has come down, essentially because demand is down and so is the volume of work," said Mohandas Pai, HR head and member of the Infosys board to Business Standard.

According to Business Standard, Infosys made 4,800 H-1B visa applications in the financial year ending March 31, 2009. The cost of one H-1B visa is said to be around $3,000, that is, around Rs.1.45 lakh. Overall, Infosys has 8,700 H-1B visa holders on its rolls as of December 31, 2008. But this figure came down to 8,200 by March 31, 2009.

Infosys defends its decision by saying that there have been many changes due to global economic slowdown and client budgets are now more short-term in nature which will only require few employees.

Recently, the U.S government introduced Grassley-Durbin Bill which aims to set tougher wage standards, which may increase salaries for H-1B workers but it will also impose limits on the number of visa workers to 50 percent of the workforce. In order to match these changes, Infosys plans to hire more than 1,000 people from outside India in 2009-10.

Currently, India has an H-1B visas quota of 65,000 and so far (till July 10), around 44,900 applications are filed. If we compare this with the figures in 2007 and 2008, the 65,000 cap was met in less than two days.
Source: SiliconIndia