Indian IT firms steadier as reliance on H-1B visas has fallen: Mohandas Pai

Industry veteran and former CFO of Infosys, Mohandas Pai on Thursday said Indian IT firms' dependence on H-1B visas has come down significantly over the years, and that data indicates many leading American tech companies are among the top applicants for these visas.

There was no official word from IT industry association Nasscom after US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made scathing remarks on these work visas meant for highly-skilled professionals describing the H-1B visa programme as "scam".

Emails to top Indian IT companies including TCS, Infosys and Wipro for comments, too, did not elicit any response.

"The current H-1B visa system is a scam that lets foreign workers fill American job opportunities. Hiring American workers should be the priority of all great American businesses. Now is the time to hire American," Lutnick said in a social media post this week.

When contacted, Pai asserted that Indian IT companies are less dependent on these visas, as also less vulnerable today compared to the past.

"Indian service companies' dependence on H-1B has come down. Please look at public data, in the last year, who were the top 20 filing of H-1B? Many large American tech companies are filing H-1B. So it is not Indian service companies coming there for H-1B... but the stock of H-1B is very high," Pai told PTI.

US Congress has mandated a cap of 65,000 for H-1B visas with additional 20,000 for professionals who have obtained a master's degree or higher from an accredited US institution.

"Last year, I think about 240,000 were renewed... renewal comes every three years. So incremental H-1Bs are being given more to American companies, less to Indian service companies. Indian service companies, most of them have more than 50 per cent of the staff they work with in America who are locals... and their dependence on H-1B has come down," Pai said.

The comments come in the backdrop of US' latest scrutiny on this foreign guest workers' visas for highly skilled professionals. The Trump administration is planning to change the H1B programme, the most sought after non-immigrant visa among Indian IT professionals, and also bring changes to the Green Card process, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has said.

"I'm involved in changing the H1B programme. We're going to change that programme, because that's terrible," Lutnick said in an interview to Fox News on Tuesday.

Indians are the main beneficiaries of the H-1B visas, which bring in the best of the talent and brains from across the world.

According to the USCIS website, the H-1B program allows employers in the United States to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly-specialised knowledge and a bachelor's degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent.

A look at the USCIS website shows that for fiscal year 2025 (data as on June 30, 2025), Amazon topped the list of H-1B visa approvals at 10,044.

In that list of top ten beneficiaries, TCS (5505) is at the second spot followed by Microsoft Corp (5189), Meta (5123), Apple (4202), Google (4181), Cognizant (2493), JP Morgan Chase (2440), Walmart (2390) and Deloitte Consulting (2353).

The top 20 list also mentions Infosys (2004), LTIMindtree (1807), and HCL America (1728).