The introduction of the bill for H-1B visa reform has hit many biggest IT firms in India as the stocks of these firms witness the sharp decline and selloff yesterday. Recently the bill was introduced and named after the US senators that seek to change and reduce the abuse and fraud in the short term visa programs.
The temporary non immigrant visa like H-1B has ran into the controversy amid allegations that they were being misused for displacing the Americans with the cheaper overseas workers.
The new bill was introduced which seek to disallow the firms that employ over 50% of workers on the H-1B and L-1 visa from employing through this path.
It will also give the Labour Department of the US improved authority to investigate, review and audit the employer compliance as well as to penalize the abusive or fraudulent conduct.
Many traders are saying that this bill is the setback for the domestic outsources who had been the key beneficiaries of the H-1B program. In the year 2014, 70% of the visas went to the workers from India. TCS top the list with 5,650 visas, Infosys with 3,454 visas and Wipro with 3,048 H-1B visas.
The H-1B visas are limited at 65,000 every year with 20,000 extra visas for the students, and the domestic firms compete with the big international giants for bringing in the qualified workers in the US, which is the leading market for the Indian IT firms.
