US' decision on H1-B visas will hurt IT firms: Nasscom

New Delhi: US decision to temporarily suspend the expedited premium processing of H1B visas will lead to process delays for Indian IT firms too, said industry body Nasscom on Sunday.

“The current issue of the temporary suspension of premium H-1B processing will create some process delays for the companies — Indian and American, but is not a significant impediment,” said Nasscom.

Nasscom said it will work with the US Embassy in India to ensure that movement of professionals is not hit by such process issues. “This has happened in the past for a couple of months to clear the backlog and we will work with the US Embassy in India to enable mobility of skilled talent is not impacted due to process issues,” said the IT body.

For Indian IT firms like TCS, Infosys and Wipro, which employ large number of H-1B holders, the move signals longer wait for visa approvals. Gartner Research director D.D. Mishra said the move will have an immediate impact on the capability of Indian IT companies to respond to urgency, thereby impacting some agility and speed.

“There are many projects which often require IT companies to address the requirement immediately and some of them are often planned or unplanned or due to a certain situation very specific to the account or project. Sometimes to address this requirement, Indian IT companies may have to hire expensive resources onsite or it can delay certain time sensitive initiatives driven by urgency,” he said.

Concerns around a proposed overhaul of the visa regime by the US has prompted Nasscom to postpone its annual forecast — for the first time — till May.
US has said that from April 3, it would temporarily suspend the ‘premium processing’ of H-1B visas that allowed some companies to jump the queue, as part of overall efforts to clear the backlog.