Infosys visa woes continue; another ex-employee files suit

There is more visa trouble for Infosys. After the Jack Palmer case, another former employee of the company, Satya Dev Tripuraneni, has filed a suit alleging the company of harassment for blowing the whistle on the impending visa row and tax fraud issue, NDTV said in a report .

The suit was filed on 2 August. Infosys, in a statement said it was looking into the case filed by Tripuraneni. Early last year, Jack Palmer, then an Infosys employee in Montgomery, Alabama, alleged the company was misusing the US visa norms.

He pointed out that Infosys routinely brought Indian tech workers into the US on B-1 visas (business visas) to do work that required an H1-B visa ( non-immigrant employee visa) . H1-B visas are more expensive and harder to get than the B-1 which only allow an individual to attend conferences and business negotiations etc. Palmer also said that Infosys managers also evaded tax payments locally.

Visas have historically been controversial for IT majors. This escalated especially after the anti-outsourcing tirade by the US government.According to officials at industry body Nasscom, visa rejection rates are ashigh as 40 percent in the US.

The US accounts for about 60 percent of the Indian IT sector’s overall revenues. As a result, Indian companies account for a significant portion of the professional US visa applications.