18 Dec, 2008, 1654 hrs IST, Indiatimes Infotech
NEW DELHI: Several leading IT companies have warned investors of a cutback in H1-Bs. In their US Securities and Exchange Commission filings, these IT companies, which includes Indian IT major Wipro, have alerted investors that it may become more difficult to obtain these visas in the future, reports a leading technology site.
In an SEC filing shortly after the US presidential elections in November, Bangalore-based Wipro warned investors that the "increasing political and media attention" directed at outsourcing may lead to legislation that restricts visa use or "imposes disincentives" to expanding offshore programmes.
Its rival Infosys Technologies also repeated warnings made in earlier filings that it’s "reliance on work visas for a significant number of technology professionals makes us particularly vulnerable" to changes in visa laws.
Infosys said that almost 7,000 of its employees held H1-B visas at the end of September. In addition, Infosys said that 1,500 of its workers held L-1 visas. L-1 visas are used by multinational firms to transfer employees. A year earlier, 7,700 Infosys employees had either an L-1 or H1-B visa, the company said.
Incidentally, several small US IT firms too have expressed concerns that change in visa laws could hurt them. Pittsburgh-based IT services provider Mastech Holdings Inc, which has operations in India, said in in an October SEC filing that unless Congress "substantially increases the annual H1-B quota," its pool of workers could be reduced. The company added that about 40 per cent of its US workforce have H1-B visas.
Many companies are unsure if they will get adequate number of visas under President-elect Barack Obama. During the presidential campaign, Obama promised to "stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas" and to provide incentives that help companies keep jobs in the US. However, though Obama promised to stop tax breaks, he never linked the H1-B visa to this issue.
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