As per data provided by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), there has been an exceptionally high spike in the number of H-1B denials for IT service firms. The firm that has been most impacted in the FY18 is Cognizant.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows the US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China, reports PTI.
According to USCIS, Cognizant has had 4,338 denials in FY18, the highest of all. It is followed by Infosys (2,122) and Tata Consultancy Services (1,896).
The top five companies had a denial total of 11, 907 H-1B applications. At this rate, companies now do not have any other option but to hire the locals.
The protectionism in the United States has peaked which is directly affecting these firms. Over the past five years, the number of H-1B approvals has declined by 21 per cent. However, the decline has been sharper year-on-year (YoY) in FY18, at 50 per cent, reported BusinessLine.
These numbers point towards an increase in the level of difficulty for Indian software engineers to get their visas.
(Inputs from BusinessLine)
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