At present TCS is making very good money on it's use of the H1-B and L-1 Visa based workers in the USA. As it is, these worker are paid less than what Americans Citizens or Permanent Residents would get..... which goes against the spirit and intent of the law!!! In year 2006, TCS imported from India over 4800 workers working on the L-1 Visa alone.

Under the L-1 Visa, if any of these persons have worked under the capacity of Body shopping, working at a client site or even working on a client fix cost, or hourly time & materials project project for an end client of Tata, this maybe a massive violation of the Spirit and Intent of the law. With the 2008 elections coming in US, TCS cannot hide from their past and present.....here is some detail on the L-1.

L-1A Visa

An L-1A is an alien coming temporarily to performs ervices in a managerial or executive capacity for the same corporation or firm, or for the branch, subsidiary or affiliate of the employer who employed him or her abroad for one continuous year within the three-year period (six months within the previous three years if the employer is eligible and has filed for a blanket L-1 approval and meets the requirements for expedited processing), immediately preceding the filing of the petition, in an executive,managerial or specialized knowledge capacity.


L-1B Visa

An L-1B nonimmigrant is an alien who has been employed overseas by a firm with an affiliated entity in the U.S., who comes to the U.S. to perform services for the international entity that involve specialized knowledge. L-1B temporary workers can no longer work primarily at a worksite other than that of their petitioning employer if either: (a) the work is controlled and supervised by a different employer or (b) the offsite arrangement is essentially one to provide a non-petitioning party with local labor for hire, rather than a service related to the specialized knowledge of the petitioning employer.

USCIS interprets the “control and supervision” provisions of the new law to require an L-1B petitioning employer to retain ultimate authority over the worker. The determination as to whether an alien is or will be employed primarily at a worksite other than that of the petitioner will depend on the specific facts presented. In addition, the bar will not apply if the satisfactory performance of such off-site employment duties requires that the L-1B temporary worker must have specialized or advanced knowledge of the petitioning employer’s product, service, or other interests, as defined under current USCIS regulations. General skills or duties that relate to ordinary business or work activities would not meet the test of whether specialized knowledge is required for the work.

The “outsourcing” provisions described above apply to all L-1B petitions filed with USCIS after June 6, 2005, and include extensions and amendments involving individuals currently in L-1 status.

The Act also requires that all L-1 temporary workers must have worked for a period of no less than one year outside the United States for an employer with a qualifying relationship to the petitioning employer. Previously, participants in the “blanket L-1” program could participate after as little as six months of qualifying employment. This change applies to petitions for initial L-1 classification filed with USCIS after June 6, 2005; extensions of status under the blanket program are not affected by this new provision.

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A note of reality needed here..I used to work in Tata Consultancy Services earlier. Frankly, I was shocked to see the level of staff exploitation as well as lack of ethics in their client work culture, contrary to the general impression created by them to the Industry abroad. I remember that they completely copied a major Benchmarking study from one client to another without any sincere effort altogether. It is sad to see the American Industry running after and incredibly enriching these kind of firms, who fundamentally grew from highly unethical and exploitation driven business models. Also, it may surprise many of us that none of the good and qualified professionals stayed long in TCS over the past years. All the good genuine professionals were harassed and abused by the highly predominant low quality and less educated old timer staff in TCS, and left the firm after demotivation on this environment. Result it that all the low quality and less educated people have stuck to TCS past 10-20 years and occupying most of senior positions nowadays, while all the good people left due to demotivation and harassment etc.. LET THIS BE A CHALLENGE TO TCS, IF THEY CAN REFUTE THIS FACT.. There are hundreds and maybe thousands of ex TCS employees who can vouch for this sad fact..

A few years back when I was working in TCS Management Consultancy group, all the Top performers were getting victimized , misutilized and harassed and ended up leaving TCS, while all the non performing staff who used to mess up and mis-deliver client projects, but were very good in internal TCS politics and groupism, used to get high importance and promotions. First hand experience..