US H1B visa new rules a reason behind high attrition: Infosys

Mumbai : IT giant Infosys on Monday blamed the new H1B visa rules by the US as a reason behind high attrition among the employees; it mentioned that they would introduce a "new value proposition" to help retain employees.

The company's Chief Operating Officer (COO) UB Pravin addressed a press conference, saying that Infosys has been facing higher employee attrition in the three-five years experience bracket in India and two-three year experience bracket in the US.

The company's attrition rate has been high for the past quarters. "For a lot of people in the three-five (experience) bracket in India, the value proposition in the past has been onsite opportunities," Rao said. "Now, with visa restrictions that is not happening. We have to create a new value proposition," he added.

Indian IT companies have been facing troubles in issuing and retaining the H1B visas for the US.

According to an analysis of data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services by the US think tank Centre for Immigration Studies in March, six Indian companies - Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, Cognizant, and the US arms of Tech Mahindra as well as HCL Tech - accounted for nearly two-thirds of H-1B visa rejections amongst the top 30 companies. The data said that Infosys got the most visa rejections - as many as 2,042 in 2018.

The six Indian IT firms got 16% (2,145), of H-1B work permits, which is less than the 2,399 visas Amazon got in 2018.