H1B Visa: TCS among Top 10 Companies to Obtain Foreign Job Certification for H-1B Visas | Business News in India

WASHINGTON: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the only Indian company among the top 10 companies to obtain a Foreign Worker Certification for H-1B visas for FY 2018 by receiving more than 20 000 certifications of this type, according to official data in which Ernst & Young was ranked No. 1.

H-1B visas are the most sought after among Indian IT professionals.

The visa program allows employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in the United States on a non-immigrant basis in specialized occupations or as distinguished-merit fashion models and their abilities.

The London-based multinational professional services firm Ernst & Young has become the first employer to obtain this certification, the US Department of Labor announced.

In fact, Ernst & Young, with 151,164 H-1B specialty job certifications, accounted for 12.4% of all foreign work certifications for H-1B work visas for the 2018 fiscal year ending September 30th according to the latest annual report issued by the Ministry of Labor earlier this month.

Ernst & Young is followed by Deloitte Consulting, which received 69,869 programs related to working conditions in the specialized H-1B professions.

Indian-American group Cognizant Technology Corp is third with 47,732 specialized jobs in the working conditions program, the Department of Labor announced in its latest annual report.

Cognizant is followed by HCL America (42,820), K Force Inc (32,996) and Apple (26,833).

The Indian group Tata Consultancy Services, or TCS, is the only Indian company in the top 10 in 2018.

According to the Ministry of Labor, during fiscal year 2018 ending September 30, the TCS received 20,755 H-1B specialty work certifications.

Qualcomm Technologies (20,723), Mphasis Corporation (16,671) and Capgemini America (13,517) are the other top 10 companies.

During fiscal year 2018, the Ministry of Labor's Bureau of Foreign Labor Certification processed 654,360 applications for the H-1B Specialized Staff Working Conditions Program, of which 599,782 were certified, 8,627 were refused and 45,951 were withdrawn.

He received 1,266,614 job applications, of which 1,223,053 were certified.

Of the certified positions, software developers and applications accounted for nearly a quarter, with 285,963 certified positions.

Next are Computer Systems Analysts (176,025), Computer Professionals (120,736), Software Developers, System Software (67,262), Accountants and Auditors (54,2410) and Computer Programmers (53,727). .

California with 309,205 certifications tops the list of states for obtaining maximum H-1B work certification, followed by Texas (115,484), New York (95,722), New Jersey (65,232) ), Illinois (56,196), Washington (52,522) and Pennsylvania (51,471). ).

According to the Department of Labor, a specialized profession requires the theoretical and practical application of a set of specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or equivalent in a specific specialty (science, medicine, care health, education, biotechnology, etc.). .)

The Congress has limited the annual number of qualified foreign workers to whom a H-1B visa or status can be awarded to 65,000 with an additional 20,000 under the H-1B Higher Diploma Exemption.

Before applying for H-1B visas, the employer submits an application for working conditions to the Ministry of Labor. Businesses can process H-1B applications only after receiving such certification from the Ministry of Labor.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), 419,637 foreign nationals were working in the United States on an H-1B visa as of October 5.

Of these, 309,986 are Indians, USCIS reported in its report "H-1B Petitions by Sex and Country of Birth, Fiscal Year 2018".