GOOD NEWS FOR IT EMPLOYEES: INFOSYS, CTS AND TCS AMONG TOP IT FIRMS IN FILING H1-B VISA APPLICATIONS - DETAILS

As a good news for millions of Indian IT professionals who wish to work in the United States (US), the country has approved 95.5 percent of the total H-1B visa applications that were filed in the June quarters. 

As per an Economic Times report, during the third quarter (April-June), President Donald Trump gave the highest ever approval rate since coming to power. Also, as per data released by the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification, companies like Qualcomm, Infosys and Cognizant submitted the highest number of visa applications during the first three quarters of fiscal 2020. A total of 1,85,298 visa applications were received by the department.

“This data includes all applications, whether for amendment of an H-1B where the company moves the employee from one location to another for a project, a change in employer, as well as new H-1B filings,” said Rajiv S Khanna, managing partner at immigration.com. 

In this new filing of data, some portions include new H-1B visas for the next fiscal, but the agency doesn’t provide that break up. There are other companies too who are on the list; TCS and Zensar were the other Indian companies in the top 10. 

Looking into SOC group, software developers and computer systems architects accounted for 40 percent of the positions certified, ET further reported. Meanwhile, the US immigration agency also certified over 35,000 applications under the permanent employment program. 

So far, Trump administration has suspended all new non-immigrant visas, including the H-1B and L-1, through a Presidential Proclamation citing threats to American jobs. In the first two quarters of the current fiscal, visa approval rates were at 83.4 percent and 87.1 percent, respectively. 

However, Nandini Nair, immigration partner at immigration law firm Greenspoon Marder said: “We are seeing higher approval rates with less Request for Evidence from prior years.” There are multiple factors “including a decrease in filings, multiple litigation wins, the pandemic and USCIS losing money,” she added.