The company has not raised visa requests for system engineers and senior engineers.
The Indian technology and outsourcing giant Infosys has backtracked from filing H-1B petitions for junior staff after speculations of stricter visa regulations by the Trump administration.
According to an Economic Times report, the Bangalore-based firm is not likely to send its junior staff with less than 4 years’ experience on H-1B visa to the US.
There is a lot of debate over the misuse of H-1B visa and how it is draining American jobs. Since the Trump administration took office, two bills have been proposed to put an end to the misuse of H-1B visas by American firms. One of these bills has proposed a raise in the minimum wage of H-1B employees from $60,000 a year to $130,000.
Related: Rep. Zoe Lofgren to introduce bill which will increase salaries of H-1B visa workers
Causing more trouble for Indian outsourcing firms, just weeks before the filing of H-1B petition, USCIS announced the temporary suspension of the premium processing of H-1B visas. This has dented the Indian outsourcing market, estimated to be around $150 billion, with a heavy blow.
An executive of Infosys was quoted by Economic Times saying that the company has not raised visa requests for system engineers and senior engineers, and has also requested its clients abroad to consider shifting the work done by these employees abroad to India.
“The company is not applying for visas for employees with under four years of experience. We are talking to clients about offshoring more work to India, and the work done by junior employees can be brought to India,” ET quoted another executive.
The move indicates that IT industry, which has long been dependent on the work visa, decided to adjust their business models to reduce the reliance on the visa. This trend falls in line with the concept of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy who had earlier said that Indian IT firms should become more multicultural if they focus on international market.
Related: Indian IT companies must turn multicultural, says Narayana Murthy
According to the report, a brief search for LinkedIn shows nearly 150 jobs advertised for various locations in the United States in the last month and some posts requires as little as two years of experience.
“There are job requirements in the US, but some customers have started asking that fewer H-1B employees be deployed onsite on their projects. We are trying to hire more onshore to deal with this issue,” a third executive said.
“One of the easiest ways to retain people when they expressed dissatisfaction was to say that we will begin their visa process. This can no longer be used.
Managers are now trying to find different ways to keep people on board,” one of the executives told the newspaper. He added that this was a problem that would be faced by the entire industry and not just Infosys.
The report adds that Tata Consultancy Services, which uses a self-imposed visa-constrained environment this year, had applied to get only 15% of the visas which it normally applies.