Visa misuse: Infosys in trouble, again

A third whistleblower complaint has been filed against Indian software exporter Infosys in the United States for alleged violations of visa norms. After the first two complaints, Infosys relocated its head of human resources, Nandita Gurjar, to US. This time, the complaint has come from the Infosys’ human resources department in the US. Infosys’ head of immigration compliance Eshan Joshi was also asked to go on a sabbatical ever since the whistleblower complaints at Infosys have become public knowledge.

The complaint, filed in late 2010, was made by an unidentified employee from the department and alleges violation of visa norms, especially in the banking and capital markets division - Infosys’s largest revenue earner. The employee also suggests that specific changes are necessary to curb such instances.

The complainant also alleges non-compliance of form I-9, which in its basic form covers authorisation by employers to employees to work in the US and compliance with which is mandatory.

Just a day ago, Infosys roped in Vasudev Nayak, the former head of the overseas operations cell at Wipro, who is believed to be the visa expert. Nayak has replaced Eshan Joshi, an associate vice-president at Infosys’ human resources division and head of its immigration department.

Firspost had earlier reported that Infosys had been sued over visa fraud by an Alabama-based employee, Jack Palmer in February.

The suit alleged that Infosys attempted to escape caps on H-1B visasby illegally bringing Indians to work in US facilities through the use of B-1 business visas, which are typically used for short-term business travel. Infosys was illegally sending employees from India to the US to work in full-time posts at its customer sites against the immigration laws.

Watch video: Infosys visa woes recur, & this time it’s from HR dept