Infosys Makes Settlement with US Immigration, Refutes Permit Misuse Claims
In a rather remarkable development, the Indian IT outsourcing biggie Infosys has consented to cough-up a staggering $34 million in settlement of a case leveled against it by the concerned US organizations. It was alleged that Infosys had blatantly and deliberately misused the US permit plan, via hiring Indian employees to make a trip to the overseas nation on B-1 business permits instead of the H-1B or L-1 permits. As per Washington DC, the same was a misuse of the permit structure.
Infosys, however, maintained there was not any complete permit fraud, misuse of permits for unfair competitive gains or immigration exploitation, as alleged. It added that such claims are false and unproved claims, further saying that there were no criminal charges or court verdicts against it. In addition, there are also no restrictions on the firm’s eligibility for federal deals or access to US permit schemes, thanks to the arrangement.
H-1B Temporary Work Permits
These permits are temporary by nature even as these enable foreign employees to work in a specialty occupation in the foreign nation, for a maximum of three years. These permits may afterwards be renewed one time for an additional period of three years. The candidates ought to be armed with degrees or have gained what could be called ‘degree equivalence’, via a combination of employment & training. At the present, an upper limit of 65,000 H-1B permits–which may be offered to holders of bachelors’ degrees (or degree equivalence) per annum–is in place. An additional 20,000 may be given to the persons having ‘higher degrees’, like doctorates or the PhDs.
H-1Bs Much In Demand
Several of these H-1B permits are employed by US IT outsourcing groups, and this covers the US subordinates of Indian biggies like Tata Consulting & Infosys. The not-too-high figure obtainable & the big demand denotes that more than 100,000 petitions were filed inside just 5 days of the USCIS opening for submissions during the month of April this year.
IT outsourcing firms from India may also usher-in non-US manpower to the US employing the L-1 intra company transfer firms. The L-1A permits enable executives from the non-US operations of organizations–having a presence in the American territories–to transfer to the overseas country, if they have been involved with the organization for not less than 1 year. These permits have a validity period of 7 years.
The L-1B ‘specialized knowledge’ Permit permits global companies to move non-US people to the overseas destination, in case they possess ‘specialized knowledge’ of the domain. Of late, the USCIS has been construing the said regulation exceedingly strictly even as it has refused admission to numerous individuals stressing that the local labor force may duly carry-out their roles. These permits have a validity period of 5 years.
Tough to Gain L-1 Permits
Many global companies have protested that it has become growingly hard to obtain the L-1 permits. In the month of March the last year, as many as 50 global companies–such as the US IT giants including Oracle besides Microsoft– complained to Barack Obama that the USCIS was rejecting appeals to shift crucial workers even as the same was destroying its own economy.
The charge against Infosys claimed that the organization ushered-in employees from its Indian operation on the B-1 permits instead of the H-1B or L1 Permits. Washington DC claimed that those people then worked on contracts on its soils even as the same was illegal.
However–as mentioned before–Infosys strongly contested the assertion maintaining that there were no criminal charges and/or court verdicts against it. In addition, thanks to the agreement, there are no limitations on its eligibility for federal deals and/or access to US permit programs.
The Indian IT outsourcing biggie Infosys has consented to cough-up a staggering $34 million in settlement of a case leveled against it by the concerned US organizations. It was alleged that Infosys had misused the US permit plan, via hiring Indian employees to make a trip to the overseas nation on B-1 business permits instead of the H-1B or L-1 permits. As per Washington DC, the same was a misuse of the permit structure.
For More Information – http://www.abhinav.com/usa-visa.aspx