Trump order or not, this is how Indian IT companies are changing plans as H1B visa application process starts next month

Even though the new H1B ruling has not been implemented in the US and President Donald Trump has not said officially on it, the Indian IT companies are taking no chance and re-working their strategies.

As the H1B visa application process will start from next month, many IT companies are implementing new policies as they don’t want to take any chance.

Infosys has decided not to send any of its junior staff on H1B visa this year.

"The key thing is that we will stop applying for H-1B visas for employees with lower levels of experience,” Krishnakumar Natarajan, executive chairman of IT services company Mindtree Ltd., told Bloomberg News. "Additionally, we will reduce the numbers of visa applications as a whole and I expect overall industry numbers to fall.”

"We are going local and building recruitment to reduce dependencies on H-1B visas,” Bangalore-based Natarajan, a former chairman of industry body Nasscom, told Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, Tech Mahindra will apply for visas proportionate to the business needs.

“The top companies, which account for 90 percent of the H1-B visas that Indian outsourcers get, are keenly matching skill requirements to applications,” Shivendra Singh, vice president and head of global trade development at Nasscom, told Bloomberg, adding “IT services providers are doing skillset mapping.”