Former Staffers Say India's Biggest IT Firm Was Gaming the US Visa System (bloomberg.com) 57
India's Tata Consultancy Services allegedly manipulated U.S. visa programs by falsifying management credentials for foreign workers, according to lawsuits and federal data obtained by Bloomberg News. TCS, India's largest IT services firm, received upwards of 6,500 L-1A visas for managers from October 2019 through September 2023, more than the next seven largest recipients combined. In contrast, TCS categorized fewer than 600 of its 31,000 U.S.-based employees as executives and managers in a 2022 federal report.
Former TCS manager Anil Kini alleged in a lawsuit that in January 2017, a senior manager ordered him to alter organizational charts to hide discrepancies for employees without management responsibilities. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found "credible documentary evidence" that TCS "frequently falsifies documents in support of L-1 visa applications," according to a 2019 letter. L-1A visas for managers, unlike H-1B visas, have no pay requirements or caps.
TCS has denied wrongdoing, saying it "strongly refutes these inaccurate allegations by certain ex-employees, which have previously been dismissed by multiple courts."
Former TCS manager Anil Kini alleged in a lawsuit that in January 2017, a senior manager ordered him to alter organizational charts to hide discrepancies for employees without management responsibilities. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found "credible documentary evidence" that TCS "frequently falsifies documents in support of L-1 visa applications," according to a 2019 letter. L-1A visas for managers, unlike H-1B visas, have no pay requirements or caps.
TCS has denied wrongdoing, saying it "strongly refutes these inaccurate allegations by certain ex-employees, which have previously been dismissed by multiple courts."
Always the lowest quality link, huh? (Score:4, Informative)
As TFS says, the story came from Bloomberg [bloomberg.com], where you can at least read two paragraphs without javascript.
India Times has the story without a paywall [indiatimes.com].
I guess MSN must be an advertiser.
Duh. (Score:5)
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Duh.
I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
Wait. (Score:5, Insightful)
We gave extra Visas to executives?
Don't we have enough of those? Way too many? Shouldn't that be the last thing we want more of if we're worried about immigrants being criminals?
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First you need to realize that the DAILY pay for an IT resource in India is about $30 US
Everybody who gets to America from India hopes to lead their own company, and use it to exploit Indian workers for their own wealth
Employers who sponsor Indian H1B Visa candidates need to realize they have no control over this and only receive secondary efforts from these candidates, who more than likely are using Indian resources to complete their tasks while they pursue contracts with US companies
This is GREAT opportun
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Lots of countries have special "executive visas". China has one that basically allows you to enter and leave the country as many times as you like in a one-year period.
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Okay, I have a visa that lets me enter and leave China as many times as I want in a 10 year period, and I'm a nobody who has inlaws there.
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We gave extra Visas to executives?
Managers, executives and "specialized knowledge" workers, under certain conditions.
L-1 visas or "transferee visas" are visas that allow US corporations to transfer foreign employees to the US. L-1 visas come in two subcategories, L-1A visas, which are for managers and executives and L-1B visas, which are for specialized knowledge workers, which means employees with specialized knowledge.
This appears to be related to L-1A, and it looks like the US government is claiming that Tata Consultancy Services (a
And we knew this. (Score:5, Informative)
We knew this was happening because anyone who has worked anywhere in the US or Canada knew the Indian staffing firms were gaming the immigration system. Gee, seems pretty weird that all these "staffing agency" hires are working at places like Subway and McDonalds.
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Yes, but, as I said in another comment here, the difference is the threshold.
You might be willing to lie, cheat, scam for, say, a gain of $1,000 and up (random threshold). You wouldn't do it for $0.50. You wouldn't prefer it if it wasn't unnecessary.
Random example: you are late for work because you couldn't wake up in time. It happens. There's no consequence. When asked about the reason, you would likely tell the truth, because you wouldn't feel the need to save face, small mistake and all. But someone rais
Re: And we knew this. (Score:2)
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Nice whataboutism, but it doesn't fly.
Look, I know everyone has a threshold for performing scamming, but the devil is in the details.
It just happens that people in India have a very low average threshold for that, plus it comes naturally to them. If you look a closer look at how they perceive lying, they mostly don't perceive it. Lying in your resume to get that job? It's not only acceptable, it's a positive trait. Lying to get a better deal? It's a good thing. Lying to save face? It's a must.
Yeah, sure, ma
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I merely expressed a very real and culturally pervasive thing in India, so you can take your deflection and shove it.
Go fuck yourself. Do you really think India's "scamminess" is any worse than the Republicans? Have you seen the flags, stickers, merch for Trump? Do you suppose there wasn't a skeezy profit motive behind all that; taking advantage of the suckers? What about the gold sneakers, and the watches, which may or may not be delivered, buyer beware? Or the bibles, which is especially rich. Heard about the billions in rug pulls he's pulled in meme coins? And you're gonna tell me that that's not an American cu
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Anyone working in tech knows they shamelessly protect one another and hire each other over more qualified people. The H1-B system is almost exclusively fraud.
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Which those people haven't been doing. Trump and Musk aren't going to stop this abuse but multiple administrations over the past 30 years have had the means to stop it but haven't.
You can't actually say that for certain. The best you can say is that they haven't stopped all of the abuse; you can't really know how much abuse they prevented, beyond that it was less than all of it. Having some oversight may well be better than having none. Either way, having no oversight and an increase to the cap (which is what the Musk/Trump administration wants, is almost certain to be worse than having oversight and a lower cap.
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Which those people haven't been doing. Trump and Musk aren't going to stop this abuse but multiple administrations over the past 30 years have had the means to stop it but haven't.
You can't actually say that for certain. The best you can say is that they haven't stopped all of the abuse; you can't really know how much abuse they prevented, beyond that it was less than all of it. Having some oversight may well be better than having none. Either way, having no oversight and an increase to the cap (which is what the Musk/Trump administration wants, is almost certain to be worse than having oversight and a lower cap.
Well, that's true if you assume that there is a need to restrict immigration. I don't; I think we should aggressively brain drain the rest of the world. The vast majority of MAGA types also think immigration should be tightly restricted, if not halted, so Trump's supporters should be incensed with him.
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H1B isn't "immigration." If they stop working for the company they get shipped home and they're not allowed to naturalize. It's a slave labor process built solely to suppress wages and fuck over American workers.
Lots of H1B workers do immigrate permanently. Those from countries with available green card quota almost all do. Those from countries with an extremely long lines often do, too, though it's much harder. In both cases, it's far, far easier for them to obtain permanent residency while here than from their original country.
More to the point, anti-immigration MAGAts definitely see H1B workers as immigrants.
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Modded troll? For stating facts? Succulent, industry veteran experienced facts?
Jeets mad
They took our jerbs! (Score:1, Funny)
If the goal was always to colonize the USA via permanent residency, one wonders why such large waves of expats are fleeing the motherland rather than staying in their home country to MIGA (Make India Great Again).
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Half the population shits on the streets, the other half is busy scamming gullible boomers via gift cards.
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>The same people your nation raised,educated and allowed to select a president.
I think the whole point was to not educate them, when they were raised, so that now they selected a president.
So block this company from getting visas (Score:2)
Simple, block TCS from being able to apply for any visa of any sort for five years.
Or put a higher salary requirement on this type of visa, as they were clearly using it to get cheap workers into the country under false pretences.
Send all the workers on these visas back if they don't meet the requirements for their actual role (past year) and salary.
what about Fruit Picker Jobs with VISAs? do they g (Score:2)
what about Fruit Picker Jobs with VISAs? do they get an min salary that is at least X3-X5 min wage? or do they get piece rate that can end being way under min
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Fruit pickers used to get access to America via the Braceros program
This was ended when the supreme court ruled that they could join the farm workers union
The farmers want employees who fear law enforcement and are completely indebted to them for their existence
Think of it as a form of slavery
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Please consider the next time you're inclined to start a sentence with "They should just..."
That explains a lot. (Score:2)
Corresponds strongly with the quality of foreign workers from that particular geographical area that I've experienced over the years.
Very common with TCS; they cant be trusted (Score:1)
If this companies willing to lie to the government just to make a few bucks saving on taxes by committing tax fraud (it is tax fraud), do you really think they're going to be honest with you about your own business or help you help your business be successful if they have the opportunity to instead reap that success for themselves?
TCS simply can't be trusted as a business partner for legitimate and competent business people.
Not just gaming the Visa system but the clients (Score:2)
This should be of no surprise. Anyone who has worked with them probably knows they game not only the Visa System but their own clients as well. Any engagement , within 6 months, turns to needing more people. Soon, companies are paying the same amount as hiring one good local worker for the same or lesser amount of work.
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Small potatoes (Score:2)
Okay now tell us who all is gaming the H1-B visa program. We'll wait.
I'm shocked (Score:2)
The day I saw my architecture diagrams in one of their sales presentations I knew they were shady AF. It was confirmed for me when a contractor told me his boss was asking for code and documents from our company and he was chewed out when he tried to include people from the company on the email thread.
I do not trust TCS to act ethically at all.
TCS is Generative AI hype, the Beta (Score:2)
L1 vs H1 (Score:2)
I have been saying for years that scrutiny of the H1 visas was probably misplaced and people needed to look at L1 visas.
L1s provide even more control of employees by employers than H1Bs, because it's more difficult to transition another employer or apply for a green card when on an L1.
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I have been saying for years that scrutiny of the H1 visas was probably misplaced and people needed to look at L1 visas.
L1s provide even more control of employees by employers than H1Bs, because it's more difficult to transition another employer or apply for a green card when on an L1.
All non-immigrant visas have the potential for abuse. The entire system of non-immigrant visas is designed to help drive wages down. Otherwise, there would be no reason to not allow a path to citizenship.
If you really want to eliminate that sort of abuse, you have to start by eliminating non-immigrant visas entirely and raising the caps on immigrant visas to compensate. Otherwise, you're not solving the real problem.
Who is classifying ... (Score:2)
Big Six (Score:2)
Perhaps I am sexist (Score:1)
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I think that Indian women are very beautiful, and I enjoy seeing them in our Country. Now that Trump made it fashionable to be racist, and sexist, I want to promote the idea to let all Indian and Chinese women into America, easy. Keep their men out!
When a country has an over-abundance of men, that tends to be a precursor to going to war. So if you want India to start World War III, that's a good way to start it down that path.
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InfoSys has a building across the street from me. (Score:2)
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They can charge more to their customers (American companies) for a consultant/contractor on US ground than they can charge if that employee is offshore.
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Not news (Score:2)