BANGALORE: Indian IT companies are bolstering their immigration, visa, and legal departments to deal with the rising number of immigration issues in the West, the primary markets for these companies. All the major tech firms today have in-house teams of 25 to 50 people. A few years ago these areas had just a few people and were part of either the HR department or were outsourced to travel agents and law firms. TCS, Wipro and Infosys have teams of around 50 each. MphasiS has 25. The Indian operations of global firms like Accenture, HP and IBM also have large departments. Small and medium size IT providers too are hiring for the space. The visa case that Infosys Technologies is fighting has made tech providers particularly vigilant. Wipro recently hired Inderpreet Sawhney as general counsel of the company. Sawhney previously was a partner in Santa Clara-based Chugh Firm. She is the head of Wipro's legal function and is responsible for helping the company run the business ethically and transparently. "Most companies are asking for people to ramp up their visa, immigration and legal departments," says B S Murthy, CEO of executive search firm LeadershipCapital. Immigration rules, he says, are more stringent today. "America is going to elections. So Indian providers are doubly conscious about not messing up in their bread-and-butter market." The number of immigration compliance violation charges is rising, as is visa rejections. About 50% of L1 visas are rejected now, compared to 30% a year ago. Some companies have gone out of the US Consulate's priority visa processing scheme, Business Express Programme, meant for those that file a minimum of 30 business visas.
Stella Nagesh, head of immigration at MphasiS, says LI visa rejections are mostly because "specialised talent" is wrongly defined by the Consulate or misunderstood by Indian companies. L1B visa is a type of intra-company transfer visa, which mandates 'specialised knowledge'. 'Specialised knowledge' is defined as any knowledge that specifically concerns the employer company's and/or the client company's procedures, methodologies, products, tools, technologies, framework, etc, that is uncommon, noteworthy and is not commonly available in the US IT industry. "Business visas too are misunderstood and violated sometimes,'' says Nagesh. One of the criteria for business visa eligibility is that the employee must not be performing any activity that would be benefiting the US client. In general, efforts of the applicant during the US stay should not be billed to the client. If billed, it is a clear case for a training visa or a work permit (H1B or L1).
Immigration, visa and legal issues today are key to enterprises as they are directly related to business. "Travel delays directly impact business flow, kills customer satisfaction and has the potential to block repeat business," says the legal head at a leading tech firm. It is critical to keep the travel channel clear and you can't expect HR or finance to know the basics of immigration. "Every company runs a visa and immigration drive internally. They are increasingly hiring law professionals to support contract drafting, contract vetting, compliance management, policy drafting, handling issues of sexual harassment etc. Some are even hiring fresh law grads,'' says Nirupama V G, MD of recruitment firm AdAstra.
Stella Nagesh, head of immigration at MphasiS, says LI visa rejections are mostly because "specialised talent" is wrongly defined by the Consulate or misunderstood by Indian companies. L1B visa is a type of intra-company transfer visa, which mandates 'specialised knowledge'. 'Specialised knowledge' is defined as any knowledge that specifically concerns the employer company's and/or the client company's procedures, methodologies, products, tools, technologies, framework, etc, that is uncommon, noteworthy and is not commonly available in the US IT industry. "Business visas too are misunderstood and violated sometimes,'' says Nagesh. One of the criteria for business visa eligibility is that the employee must not be performing any activity that would be benefiting the US client. In general, efforts of the applicant during the US stay should not be billed to the client. If billed, it is a clear case for a training visa or a work permit (H1B or L1).
Immigration, visa and legal issues today are key to enterprises as they are directly related to business. "Travel delays directly impact business flow, kills customer satisfaction and has the potential to block repeat business," says the legal head at a leading tech firm. It is critical to keep the travel channel clear and you can't expect HR or finance to know the basics of immigration. "Every company runs a visa and immigration drive internally. They are increasingly hiring law professionals to support contract drafting, contract vetting, compliance management, policy drafting, handling issues of sexual harassment etc. Some are even hiring fresh law grads,'' says Nirupama V G, MD of recruitment firm AdAstra.