India's Tata Consultancy Was Gaming the US Visa System

The easiest way to solve this is to salary rank the H1B applicants. Those with the highest salaries get picked; not the ‘lucky ones’ that get through a lottery, which puts a PhD from MIT and a new hire at Tata from a no name school in India on equal footing. And I say this as someone who was on H1B. The current system benefits no one but these visa mills.<p>Edit: for grammar

Theres nothing new here. Everyone knows, when you join outsourcing orgs in India, the goal is to go on-site. There is lot of internal politics and toxicity to be in that position to go onsite.<p>Recently, I have seen these orgs. do the same in europe. They are just bombarding the system with applications.<p>What is the motivation you ask? For billable resource, rates are different for resource when they are on-site vs off-site. Margins are better too.

Here&#x27;s what I don&#x27;t get about TCS: I worked for a local Fortune 100 company, and 20 years ago they started outsourcing IT-related jobs to TCS (and a couple smaller staffing companies). Mostly in India and South America.<p>Then about 10 years ago, the company dedicated almost an entire building to TCS, and TCS starting hiring contractors locally, and perhaps moved H1B&#x27;s here to work on-site?<p>What&#x27;s the next step, start hiring off-shore again?

“The manager visas, known as L-1As, are easier for employers to obtain and have fewer guardrails; for example, they lack even the minimal pay requirements that Congress has imposed for H-1B holders.”<p>This isn’t a story about H-1B abuse. It’s a story about TCS avoiding even the minimal restrictions of H-1B by sending applicants through L-1A.

It&#x27;s kind of interesting that Indian companies and H1-B abuse has been so cemented in people&#x27;s minds that almost 80% of the comments here are about H1B abuse and what to do about it rather than the L1-A which this article is talking about. L1-A is a bigger source of fraud because there is fewer guardrails and most companies see it as a given if they want to move the employee. The only thing is you have to wait a year or so after hiring the employee to move them.

This is common knowledge. Fucking pricks should be banned. Ruining H1B prospects for many deserving candidates

This story is missing some details about L-1 visas - most notably that you have to work for a year in an overseas office for the company that has a US office before they can use an L-1 to transfer you.<p>Wikipedia is useful on this: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;L-1_visa" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;L-1_visa</a>

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;HrHtV" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;HrHtV</a>

I&#x27;ve had a rule for many years: &quot;it will be gamed, no exceptions.&quot; All systems, economies, markets, etc. will be gamed.

Shocker. We&#x27;ve known this for 20+ years now.

So its not H1B its L1A that they gamed. Anyways, hardly the job strealing scheme its touted to be. You gotta renew it every year and should the employer fire you, you lose the visa. Not a win-win for the employee.

This manager culture is prevailing in Indian outsourcing shops. Many talented and deserving candidates are taken back and such manager community is shipped out. Because of risky H1B visa, companies retain better talent in India to fix real issues. If you are planning to source, better to travel down to India (Bangalore&#x2F;Hyderabad) and meet real heroes. There is a massive talent, IC roles are waiting to bring innovative and efficient solutions.<p>What article states is 100% true, being involved with similar company, passed beyond my NDA agreement duration.

A coverup you say? With a paper trail? Hopefully someone goes to prison. But I doubt it.

no. shit. sherlock.

h1b abuse you say? Shocking.

TCS filed 5k H1B visa applications last year, compared to 9.5k by Amazon and 8k by Infosys. Not sure why specifically TCS is being targeted.