TCS, Wipro, Infosys all likely end up paying $10,000 for each visa.
By Dileep Thekkethil
The immigration reform bill, which will be debated by the U.S. Senate in the next few days, may contain plenty of sops for the tech industry in general. But for the Indian tech industry, it is a bitter pill.
The bill that cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 28 has provisions to give green cards to anyone with an advance degree in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and has a job offer in the United States.
This will help American companies to attract top talent from all over the world. From Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, a number of tech industry leaders have been publicly lobbying Congress for a long time to put in place a visa regime that will allow them to liberally hire skilled tech workers from abroad.
The new bill also raises the annual cap on H-1B visas from the current limit of 85,000 to roughly 180,000, another longstanding demand of the technology industry.
However, the bill also disincentivizes companies from maintaining large-scale H-1B and L workforce in the United States. If a company employs more than 50 people and has between 30 percent and 50 percent on H-1B or L visas, it now will have to pay $5,000 in visa fee for each visa applicant starting next year.
If such a firm’s workforce contains more than 50 percent H-1B and L employees, the visa fee will be $10,000. The revenue thus generated will go to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Trust Fund, which will be established by the new legislation.
Based on the current numbers, Indian companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys, will end up paying $10,000 for each additional employee they are going to hire.
According to a database maintained by the ComputerWorld.com, in the fiscal year 2012, TCS received approximately 7,400 H-1B visas, Infosys more than 4,500, Wipro around 4,300.
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