H-1B premium processing has few takers among Indian IT

BENGALURU: Indian IT services companies are not too keen to use a premium processing option for H-1B visas due to a changing business model and higher rejection rates, two people aware of the developments at industry lobby group Nasscom said.

These companies, long dependent on H-1B visas to deploy software engineers close to their clients in the United States, got a significant chunk of the visas under the 85,000 annual H-1B limit, which includes a cap of 20,000 master’s degree holders.

Over the past three years, most of these firms have started hiring locally, primarily from universities as they have come under increased scrutiny and have faced more rejections, said one of the people.