Indian employees going to the US may find it increasingly difficult to get a visa.
Data obtained from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reveal the agency has dramatically increased denials of L-1 and H-1B petitions over the past four years, harming the competitiveness of US employers and encouraging companies to keep more jobs and resources outside the US, according to a report by National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), an Arlington, Virginia-based policy research group.
In FY 2011, 63 per cent of all L-1B petitions received a Request for Evidence and 27 per cent were issued a denial, that means USCIS adjudicators denied or delayed between 63 per cent and 90 per cent of L-1B petitions in 2011. The report also said when it came to issuing new L1 visas, Indian-born professionals face an uphill task. It said the increasing denials might largely be a case of dramatic increase in denials of Indians.
Country specific data on new (initial) L-1B petitions indicate USCIS is more likely to deny a petition from an Indian-born professional than nationals of other countries. The denial rate for Indian-born applicants for new L-1B petitions rose from 2.8 per cent in FY 2008 to 22.5 per cent in FY 2009, a substantial rise that resulted in many employers being unable to transfer their employees into the US to work on research projects or serve customers, said the report.
In FY 2006, the L-1B denial rate of new (initial) petitions (not extensions) for Indians was 1.7 per cent, falling to 0.9 per cent in FY 2007, and then rising to 2.8 per cent in FY 2008. The denial rate remained high for new Indian L-1B petitions in FY 2010 at 10.5 per cent, well above its historic levels, and rose to 13.4 per cent in FY 2011.
In comparison, the denial rate for new L-1B petitions for Canadians rose from 2 per cent in FY 2008 to only 2.9 per cent in FY 2009. Illustrating the abrupt change, USCIS denied more L-1B petitions for new petitions for Indians in FY 2009 (1,640) than in the previous nine financial years combined (1,341 denials between FY 2000 and FY 2008).
“US Citizenship and Immigration Services adjudicators have demonstrated a capacity to keep skilled foreign nationals out of the United States by significantly increasing denials, along with often time-consuming Requests for Evidence, despite no change in the law or relevant regulations,” said Stuart Anderson of the National Foundation for American Policy.
The report also confirms the worst fear of Indian IT firms, that rejections are done purely based on the adjudicators’ understanding of visa rules.
“At times, applicants are rejected for L-1B status if a particular consular officer or an adjudicator believes a company cannot possibly have more than three to five people with specialised knowledge in a particular area. Nothing in the statute or regulations indicates ‘specialised knowledge’ need be restricted to a handful of people in a company,” points out the report.
Voicing his concern, Som Mittal, President Nasscom, the IT industry body, said: “It seems this activism is largely in India and it is the Indian citizen at the receiving end. Visa rejections is not because of regulatory issues or order. These issues can be resolved without any political connotation. We are not asking for a new visa category or to increase the cap. US guidelines must be clear on why the visa is being rejected.”
The reports comes even as Indian companies have gone ahead and created jobs by hiring locals. Over the last few years, Indian IT firms have created over 25,000 jobs in the US. Tata Consultancy Services has created job opportunities for 4,700 locals. Of these 2,500 are local hires and 2,200-2,300 are people hired in the US on project basis, also known as business associates.
Wipro hires close to 10,000 people in the US, of which over 3,000 are from the US, said an analyst. Meanwhile Infosys has said it would be hiring 1,500 employees in the US. As of the third quarter of FY12, the firm has hired 500 employees.
