Visa curbs hit business of US IT staffing cos run by Indians

PUNE: IT services, staffing and consulting firms in the United States — largely owned by Indians — are also finding business models under threat due to the increased denial rates for H-1B visas.

“Our growth has been hampered because of the uncertainty around the H-1B visas,” said Kishore Khandavalli, CEO of Seven-Tablets, a custom software development firm. “In some instances, companies have spent $6,000 to apply for a visa, and instead of three years, they’ve been granted a visa for one day.”

In some cases, visa extensions have been rejected saying the petitioner is not qualified, although they were granted earlier under similar conditions.