The H1B visa reforms may force Indian IT companies, such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro, to shift work offshore or other near-shore centres or subcontract to US firms, while accelerating automation, say analysts. Alongside, a draft legislation, which among other things, calls for more than doubling the minimum salary of H1B visa holders to $130,000, was introduced in the US House of Representatives. The draft legislation also proposes to reserve 20% of the H1B visas allocated annually for firms that have 50 or fewer employees. The average annual wage for a TCS employee on a H1B visa is $69,658, according to the note. The contentious H1B visas are given to foreign nationals in “specialty” occupations that generally require higher education, who according to the US government rules include engineers, computer programmers and scientists.

Source: Mint January 31, 2017 20:03 UTC