TCS says US rejecting as many as half of Indian work visas

India’s largest IT company, TCS (Tata Consulting Services) has said that half of the visa applications to the United States are being rejected as the Obama administration continues to tighten up on immigration as there will be a debate ahead, regarding immigration reform in the house.

Ajoyendra Mukherjee, Global human resources head of TCS said that 50% rate of visa rejection had resulted in increasing the hires from Canada and the US together, from 450 to 600 for every quarter.

The figures on the paper may be worrying for the IT industry in India, which is waiting to witness whether the house of representatives that is divided, passes the Senate approved immigration bill.

Nasscom has already branded the Economic opportunity, Immigration Modernization Act and Border Security as discriminatory, because these laws will put strict limits on the H1B visas, a category of visa that is granted to foreign workers temporarily.

It is argued that this would put extra burden on the Indian companies as US hires will push up the associated costs and wage bills. Still, Ajoyendra Mukherjee said to the media that this is not the case necessarily.

Mukherjee said “Hiring someone at the junior level in the US is probably less expensive than hiring someone from India. Generally, everyone thinks that hiring people from India is low cost, which is not true and getting someone for the junior level from India is more expensive”.

As part of this strategy, TCS in the US has visited 35 universities to hire fresh, off the campus. On the other hand, with higher visa rejection rates, the cost of doing business in the US will go up. This 50% visa rejection rate is going on since some years now and is thought to have jumped up from the 30% level, previously.