Since the origin of the idea for reforms in the bill titled ‘High-Skilled Integrity and Fairness Act of 2017’ by California Congressman Zoe Lofgren, the Indian IT firms have been bearing the brunt of it, facing survival controversies and condemnation worldwide. The recent executive order signing and following White House briefings have portrayed putative Indian IT companies such as TCS and Infosys as defaulters in the current lottery-based H-1B visa system.
A U.S. official had accused these firms of practicing unfair means to grab the lion’s share of H-1B visas. The official was of the view that these outsourcing firms are flooding the lottery-based system with applications for increasing their chances to win the lottery system. The Trump rule is currently working towards the transformation of such a system into a merit-based immigration policy.
However, exonerating such baseless charges over Indian companies, NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) has presented interesting figures which are certain to wash away any charges. As per the data collected by NASSCOM, only six of the top twenty H-1B recipients are Indian companies. Apparently, we can say 70% of H-1B receipts are U.S. companies, hence there is not even a mere scope of deluging applications with such minority.
To emphasize the fact, the figures declare that TCS and Infosys together only received 7,504 approved H-1B visas in FY 2015, which only accounts for a scant 8.8% of the total approved H-1B visas. Having such astonishing figures demarcated by NASSCOM, we are certain that the allegations put over TCS and Infosys will come to an end. The data collected by the association is certain to hush the blabbering U.S officials, operating under the Trump administration.
NASSCOM has further presented some unusual facts (if you are still in the dark!) clarifying the misleading statements made by the White House on Indian IT companies getting the lion’s share. The details shared by NASSCOM are as follows:
- The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that there will be ~2.4 million unfilled STEM jobs by 2018, with >50% of these vacancies in IT-related positions. All Indian IT companies cumulatively account for less than 20% of the total approved H-1B visas; although Indian nationals get ~71% of the H-1B visas.
- The annual number of Indian IT specialists working on temporary visas for Indian IT service companies is about 0.009% of the 158-million-member U.S. workforce.
- A NASSCOM Survey also found that the average wage for visa holders is over USD 82,000 apart from a fixed cost of about US 15,000 incurred for each visa issued which includes visa cost and related expenses. This is over 35% higher than the minimum prescribed exempt wage of US$ 60,000
These details not only demonstrate the high skill levels of Indian-origin professionals, especially in the coveted STEM skills category but also bespeak of the shortfall between the supply and demand for computer science majors in the U.S. workforce. Especially in the cutting-edge fields of cloud, big data, and mobile computing. The shortage fulfilled by Indian scholars, help towards the development of U.S but earmarked with such criticism lowers the morale of such bright minds.
In addition, NASSCOM said,
All companies, including US, Indian and other global companies tend to hire locally and bridge the skills gap by bringing in highly skilled professionals to temporarily work in the US on H-1B and other visas.
Indian IT companies follow the global delivery model with US and Global counterparts working with more than 75% of the Fortune 500 companies, to enable them to become more competitive globally, creating jobs locally in the US. Indian IT Industry is a “net creator” of jobs in the U.S and supports nearly half a million jobs directly and indirectly.
