Infosys, Cognizant, TCS violating H-1B work visa norms: senior US official

The administration wants to implement a ‘merit-based’ immigration policy.

The United States has criticized Indian IT giant Infosys, Cognizant and Tata Consultancy Services for applying for a large number of H-1B visas and getting a lion’s share, more than they deserve, by putting extra tickets in the lottery raffle.

A senior Trump administration official said at a White House briefing last week that the government wants to implement a ‘merit-based’ immigration policy.

“Some companies often times are called outsourcing firms. You may know their names well, but like the top recipients of the H-1B visa are companies like Tata, Infosys, Cognizant- they will apply for a very large number of visas, more than they get, by putting extra tickets in the lottery raffle,” the official said, according to a transcript posted on the White House official website. “If you will, and then they’ll get the lion’s share of the visas. Which is very different than I think how most people think of the H-1B program – they imagine it for more – being for – again, they would think of it as being for skilled domestic work, rather than contract work.”

Asked if the government specifically criticized these Indian companies for taking advantage of the H-1B visa program, the official responded that these three are top recipients of H-1B visas.

“Those three companies are companies that have an average wage for H-1B visas between $60,000 and $65,000. By contrast, the median Silicon Valley software engineer’s wage is probably around $150,000.”

He continued: “So it just illustrate the point that I was walking you through about how H-1B visas are awarded- if you have contracting firms that are not skilled employers that often times use workers for entry-level positions, and they capture the lion’s share of H-1B visas.”

It’s a criticism of the way the H-1B visa program is run, he added.