US rejects 20% of H-1B visa applications, denial rate higher for Indian IT firms: Study

The United States has denied one in every fifth new petition for the H-1B visas in 2019 to the individuals and according to a study from official figures, the denial rate is higher for Indian IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys as compared to the American firms. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows American companies to hire foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical and technical expertise. According to reports, the tech firms are highly dependant on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries including India and China. 

The National Foundation for American Policy has noted that even though the denial rate has dropped from being 24 per cent in 2018 to 21 per cent in 2019, it still remains higher for the Indian IT companies including TCS, Wipro, and very low for companies like Amazon and Google. According to reports, the denial rate for TCS and Infosys in 2019 was 31 per cent and 35 per cent, while for Wipro it was  47 per cent and 37 per cent for Tech Mahindra. However, for Amazon and Google, the denial rate for the new H-1B visa remains just four per cent. Moreover, the denial rate for Microsoft was just six per cent in the same time period and three per cent for Walmart and Facebook. 

"In 2020, the Trump administration is expected to introduce a new H-1B regulation that will make it more difficult for employers to hire high-skilled foreign nationals in the United States," the policy said in a report this week. 

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H-1B issue between India, US

The issue of H-1B visas has been discussed between the United States and India several times in the past. Even during US President Donald Trump's maiden visit to India in February, the matter of the H-1B was raised along with the contribution of the Indian professionals in the high-tech sector was underlined. 

Moreover, in December 2019, during the 2+2 dialogue with Washington, the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had laid emphasis on the importance of intra-people relations and said that they were the defining elements of the friendship between both the countries. According to reports, since 2004, the annual limit of 65,000 H-1B petitions and the 20,000 exemption from that limit for individuals with an advanced degree from an American university has been exhausted every year. 

The 85,000 new H-1B petitions only come to 0.05 per cent of the US labour force of approximately 164 million. In addition to the greater denial rates under the Trump administration, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data shows that the percentage of completed cases with Requests for Evidence (RFEs) increased from 22.3 per cent in 2015 to 40.2 per cent in 2019. 

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(With PTI inputs)