The Hindu Business Line : Portability clause: Consulting firms cautious on H-1B visas

CONSULTING firms are cautious in investing in sponsorship of techies since the new H-1B laws allow a consultant to change sponsors because of the portability clause. While the number of H-1B visas has come down from 1,95,000 few years ago to 65,000 now creating pressure, some recent trends indicate that the US economy is reviving.

The Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Y-Axis, Mr Xavier Augustin, told Business Line that the US economy is reviving and there are clear signals of an increased recruitment activity but there is also no sense of urgency.

The cautiousness on the part of consultants is due to the portability clause that allows the consultants to join the new employer as soon as the INS (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) acknowledges receipt of the transfer petition. Further, the premium processing services processes H-1B in a much shorter time.

"With the H-1B visa landscape and its regulatory issues changing over the years, we have reworked our business strategy from purely online services provider to a combination of online and offline support services. This meant that we have also diversified into newer consulting areas such as education facilitation and immigration services. From a global career management consulting company with predominant technology services and H-1B facilitation, we have restructured operations laying focus on new business streams," Mr Augustin said.

The H-1B market activity is driven by the speculation of consulting firms on the anticipated demand of certain skill sets in 2004 and 2005. Therefore, sponsorships are never a reflection of actual current employment realities in the US and whatever sponsorship is on a speculative hiring from October 2004 onwards. This speculation and limited H-1B visas lead to scramble for sponsorships.

The H-1B quota of 65,000 is not exclusive to techies and needs to be shared with other occupations such as nurses and other demand areas. However, approximately 60 per cent of this goes to techies annually. The H-1B petition processing has become affordable and is lot cheaper than before. The current fee payable to the US is only $185 as against $1,000, which was hitherto paid by the sponsors.

Highlighting the current trends in H-1B visas, Mr Augustin said the changes brought about by the portability clause implied that recruitment would mean that however experienced the candidate, since he can apply for multiple H-1Bs and easily change employers, he must be able to prove loyalty to his sponsor in some way or the other.

The flexibility in H-1B has also meant that the US authorities are more accommodating on consultants being on the bench for a longer time.

For instance, as long as the employer-employee relationship exists, an H-1B consultant is still in status.

An H-1B consultant may work in full or part time employment and remain in status. Further, the consultant may also be on vacation, sick or on maternity or paternity leave or otherwise inactive without affecting his or her status. This is a significant departure from earlier times.

The California-based global career management company has about 300 consultants. Angel funded, this has emerged as a consultant for H-1B workers and has over 80,000 online members.

With Indian centres in Hyderabad, Chennai and Goa, the company had taken to counselling and helping in other areas such as immigration, he said.