India’s top IT services firms are reworking their recruitment strategies, pushing for local hires in key markets such as the US amid growing frustration over long wait times for work visas.
Wipro Chief Human Resource Officer Saurabh Govil said in an email response to a query, “We are building a talent pool that is distributed, local and diverse and thus, reducing our dependence on H1-B visas.” Has occurred.”
For decades, IT companies have deployed a significant portion of their workforce overseas, while gradually expanding local recruitment. However, increasing delays in work visa approval, sometimes stretching for a year or more, have emerged as a major disruptive factor. As a result, many companies are hiring locally to meet urgent customer demands.
After the March quarter earnings, Milind Lakkad, chief human resource officer at Tata Consultancy Services, said the delay in US visas could prevent its talent from gaining global exposure. “So, trade-wise, you know, it is not a significant issue. We have dealt with it for the last two years, and we can deal with it. Granted because I can provide a large percentage of people from here to move quickly to other places and gain global work experience.
VFS Global, which handles US visa processing in India, said it does not handle anything here directly, but is a subcontractor of CGI Federal, which handles visas for the US globally. .
Data published by the US Embassy in India shows that the wait for B1 and B2 visas can range from 331-494 days.
An industry expert on visas said, “It is a diplomatic decision that the embassy will take, and they are looking to increase their capacity.”
HCL Technologies is also looking for local talent to reduce dependence on Visa. “We don’t import people from India, we hire local talent… Our dependence on visas has always been the lowest, which is really a commitment to localization, not just in the US, but in all those geographies where we operate and deliver top quartile returns,” said C. Vijayakumar, CEO and MD of HCLtech, at an investor meet last December.
Travel agency officials said that while visa timelines are being further relaxed in other regions, the US remains a challenge.
Indivar Rastogi, President and Group Head, Global Business Travel, said, “While we have seen a strong rebound in business travel, US visa concerns continue to pose a significant constraint, especially in the availability of placements for our tech clients/corporates because of the challenges of Thomas Cook (India) and SOTC Travel.
Concerns about long waiting times apply to both the short-term B1 and B2 and work visa categories, with different appointment slots depending on the city. The current deadline for B1 and B2 visas is over a year in cities like Mumbai and Delhi.
HR head of a mid-scale IT firm said on condition of anonymity, ‘So, unless a client wants a set of employees who have been working on projects for some time, we have stopped sending employees. Is done.’ He said no one was ready to wait for people for more than 90 days in view of the tight timelines.
However, the US visa administration recently said that it will issue over one million visas to Indians, giving some relief to IT companies.
Technical analyst Prashanto K. “Despite high-level bilateral meetings, there are several strategic issues and geopolitics on the table, and visas may be pushed down the list,” Roy said.
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