 "US visa crunch to limit international offers at IITs")
The paucity of H-1B visas continues to impact international offers at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) during final placements this year, which begins on December 1.
While IIT-Madras has confirmed that radio cab player Uber had this year withdrawn its international offers for US due to visa issues, other IITs said the number of international offers might be lower by 10-15 per cent than last year.
"The number of international profiles are less this year. Moreover, Uber has withdrawn its international profile due to the visa problem," said V Babu, advisor, training & placement, IIT-Madras.
An email to Uber was unanswered, while a Google spokesperson declined to comment.
Sources at IIT-Guwahati and Kharagpur said no withdrawal of international profiles have come up so far. But the number of offers were anticipated to be low due to the visa issues.
"As most of the international offers are usually for the US, the lack of adequate H-1B visa is likely to bring the numbers down this year by 10-15 per cent. As of now, marquee MNCs, especially tech firms, do not seem to be as keen as last year with regard to international offers, particularly to the US," said institute sources at IIT-Guwahati.
The current quota of H-1B visas for the US is around 65,000 from India. IITs say this gets lapped up by job immigrants.
A placement team official at IIT-Bombay said the shortage of H1 B visa could be an issue. "Though we don't ask companies how many offers they are going to make, H1 B visa could be an issue. So far we have not seen an increase or dip in the offers from international companies."
Institute sources at IIT-Kharagpur, too, confirmed they anticipated lower number of international offers this year.
Companies such as Google, Oracle, Microsoft, Facebook and Schlumberger recruit from IITs for international profiles. Facebook this year has already made pre-placement offers and would not participate in the final placement process, an IIT-Bombay official said. Offers from companies in the South-East Asian region remained the same as last year, the institute said. Three new companies have registered with the institute this year.
ROUGH ROADS
- IIT-Madras has confirmed that radio cab player Uber had this year withdrawn its international offers for US due to visa issues
- Other IITs said the number of international offers might be lower by 10-15 per cent than last year
- No withdrawal of international profiles have come up so far
- The current quota of H-1B visas for the US is around 65,000 from India
- Facebook this year has already made pre-placement offers and would not participate in the final placement process
