Indian multinational companies (MNCs) have leveraged H1B Visas to serve their clients’ outsourcing needs in the Americas for many years. They were the largest consumers of H1B Visas. But, we see a big change in trend in the past few years. Our editorial team researched a vast amount of data collected and analyzed to find interesting insights.
These insights have shown interesting facts and trends. Especially the losing charm of Indian IT companies regarding H1B visas. In this article, we share the trends and insights into this situation and whether this will continue or not.
Article Contents
Top Indian IT Employers List using H1B Visas
For our analysis, we chose the below top Indian IT companies with a history of filing considerate amounts of H1B Labor Condition Applications(LCAs) and petitions in the past few years. We also considered them based on the size of these companies, by revenue, and the total number of employees.
Indian IT Outsourcing MNCs H1B LCA Filings Trend
H1B LCAs are a good indicator of how many H1B workers they are currently employing or planning to employ. We have curated the total H1B LCA filings for these Indian IT Outsourcing Companies since 2019 in a nice table to see the real data of the trend.
The table below outlines the total H1B LCAs filed by year by the Indian IT MNC named next to it in a row from 2019 until the current fiscal year*.
| Indian IT Outsourcing MNC | 2023* | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
| Cognizant Technology Solutions US Corp | 9,784 | 13,875 | 12,651 | 28,578 | 28,415 |
| Tata Consultancy Services Limited | 7,055 | 11,160 | 9,813 | 11,928 | 11,864 |
| Infosys Limited | 5,772 | 7,652 | 5,598 | 9,470 | 21,416 |
| Wipro Limited | 1,961 | 2,431 | 2,840 | 2,434 | 4,267 |
| HCL America INC | 2,735 | 3,861 | 4,100 | 4,281 | 4,671 |
| Tech Mahindra Americas INC | 989 | 1,612 | 2,115 | 2,731 | 2,911 |
| L&T Technology Services Limited | 550 | 824 | 806 | 1,332 | 2,034 |
| Mindtree Limited | 1,545 | 1,208 | 1,343 | 1,442 | 1,168 |
The graph is a better way to visualize the trend. We have taken the above tabular data and plotted a nice graph that shows the trend in the H1B LCAs filed by the company.
Data Analysis: Downward Trend in H1B Filings by Indian IT Employer
A close examination of the above H1B LCA data reveals a clear downtrend in the total number of H1B LCAs filed. While some companies like Cognizant, TCS, and Infosys have a big drop in the number of LCAs filed, companies like HCL, Wipro, and others have slightly less drop in the number of LCA filings. This is in line with their size of operations, revenue, and number of employees.
Why did these Companies File Fewer H1Bs?
Our analysis showed that this may be due to the following reasons:
COVID-19 Impact on H1B Filings
COVID-19 is one of the important factors that had many side effects for many companies. COVID-19 disrupted the entire world and the technology industry is no exception and not immune to this. As per CDC timelines, COVID had its impact starting at the beginning of January 2020, and it continued its impact till late 2022 when most of the population got their COVID vaccines. We discuss more on this later in the article.
US Economy Situation with Layoffs and Unemployment Rate
COVID created a big impact on the US economy and the GDP is slower than expected for the years 2020-2023. This resulted in companies squeezing out every possible way to survive in the economic downtrend. No industry is immune to this impact and started laying off employees.
As per layoffs.fyi records, there have been approximately 400,000 employees who lost their jobs for the years 2022 and 2023. This means there is no hiring in general and no hiring of H1B Visa holders as well. As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate was at its peak in 2020 with 14.7%. It took almost 2 years for the unemployment rate to come down to pre-pandemic levels.
Government Regulations
During the Trump administration, a policy was implemented with the goal of “Buy American and Hire American“. These regulatory changes significantly affected H1B Visa holders. It significantly reduced in the number of LCA filings filed by Indian IT employers. Some of these executive orders were later revoked by the Biden administration. There were other regulations under the Trump administration like a travel ban for visa holders also had a greater impact.
New H1B Registration Process
The new H1B Registration Process went live with FY 2021. We think the new H1B registration process may have helped streamline the overall H1B process. It is a good first step towards making the process easier and transparent.
In the new registration process, the employer doesn’t have to file an LCA before selecting the employee in the lottery. This prevents employers from filing unnecessary LCAs for those not selected in the lottery.
Fear of Instability
All the things happening around H1B visas combined with economic instability, distilled a sense of insecurity among prospective H1B visa holders. Employers started hiring non-visa holders within the USA and the prospect of H1B employees from foreign countries delayed their dream to come to the land of opportunities.
Conclusion
Whether it is a government change, COVID, or the new regulations for H1B visas, the impact on the H1B visa holders is a fact. There were a lot of difficulties for H1B visa holders who left the country for good when they lost their jobs and could not find a job within the 60-day grace period.
As always, we always ask our readers to share their thoughts on what impact caused the Indian IT companies to file fewer LCAs over the last few years. Feel free to leave a comment below.
Also talk about how jobs have been offshoring to India.