Who gets H-1B visas? Check out this list (Top 100 H-1B Employers Of 2006)

EE Times ^ | May 27, 2007 | Marianne Kolbasuk McGee

[nwrep]

Criticism by federal legislators is mounting against Indian outsourcing firms that use the H-1B visa foreign worker program to staff their U.S. operations. Critics claim that the Indian firms skirt regulations and use the visas to train workers in the U.S. to facilitate moving jobs offshore.

A government list obtained by InformationWeek of the top 200 companies receiving H-1B visas for foreign workers last year reveals that five of the top 10 were Indian outsourcers. The complete list of 200, however, shows a mix of foreign companies, U.S. technology vendors, and American universities. Microsoft is number three on the list, IBM number eight, and Oracle USA number nine. The New York City Public School system ranks twenty-second on the list, with 642 H-1B visas received last year.

Earlier this week, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration, sent letters to the CEOs of nine Indian firms asking for details about how they use their H-1B visas. The companies, including Infosys, Satyam, Tata Consultancy Services, and Wipro, are among the top users of the visas.

Last year, the nine Indian firms collectively were issued 19,512 of the 65,000 H-1B visas granted, according to the list. (In addition to the 65,000 granted annually, the U.S. also issues H-1B visas to 20,000 foreign students who received advanced degrees from U.S. universities.)

As of press time, none of the nine Indian companies has responded to the Durbin-Grassley letters, according to a Durbin spokesman. However, a statement by the National Association of Software and Services Companies, an organization that represents Indian IT firms, defended the practice.

Here's The List (1 - 100)

The Top 100 H-1B Employers Of 2006 (1 - 100)
Rank	Company	No. of visas
1	INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED	4908
2	WIPRO LIMITED	4002
3	MICROSOFT CORPORATION	3117
4	TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED	3046
5	SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES LTD	2880
6	COGNIZANT TECH SOLUTIONS U S CORP	2226
7	PATNI COMPUTER SYSTEMS INC	1391
8	IBM CORPORATION	1130
9	ORACLE USA INC	1022
10	LARSEN & TOUBRO INFOTECH LIMITED	947
11	HCL AMERICA INC	910
12	DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP	890
13	CISCO SYSTEMS INC	828
14	INTEL CORP	828
15	I-FLEX SOLUTIONS INC	817
16	ERNST & YOUNG LLP	774
17	TECH MAHINDRA AMERICAS INC	770
18	MOTOROLA INC	760
19	MPHASIS CORPORATION	751
20	DELOITTE CONSULTING LLP	665
21	LANCESOFT INC	645
22	NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS	642
23	ACCENTURE LLP	637
24	JPMORGAN CHASE & CO	632
25	POLARIS SOFTWARE LAB INDIA LTD	611
26	COVANSYS CORPORATION	611
27	PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP	591
28	QUALCOMM INCORPORATED	533
29	GOLDMAN SACHS & CO	529
30	KPMG LLP	476
31	MARLABS INC	475
32	UNIV OF MICHIGAN	437
33	UNIV OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO	434
34	UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA	432
35	THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV MED INSTS	432
36	SYNTEL CONSULTING INC	416
37	CITIGROUP GLOBAL MARKETS INC	413
38	BEARINGPOINT INC	413
39	UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND	404
40	KEANE INC	386
41	HTC GLOBAL SERVICES INC	382
42	IGATE MASTECH INC AN IGATE COMPANY	378
43	HEXAWARE TECHNOLOGIES INC	362
44	CAPITAL ONE SERVICES INC	362
45	COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY	355
46	LEHMAN BROTHERS INC	352
47	YAHOO INC	347
48	US TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES LLC	339
49	INTELLIGROUP INC	336
50	HEWLETT PACKARD CO	333
51	RAPIDIGM INC	330
52	MERRILL LYNCH & CO INC	329
53	GOOGLE INC	328
54	CITIBANK N A	322
55	DIS NATIONAL INSTS OF HEALTH DHHS	322
56	YALE UNIVERSITY	316
57	NOKIA INC	314
58	TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC	313
59	CAPGEMINI U S LLC	309
60	HARVARD UNIVERSITY	308
61	EMC CORPORATION	305
62	SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC	303
63	RITE AID CORPORATION	301
64	BLOOMBERG	298
65	GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY	292
66	AMGEN INC	289
67	MCKINSEY & COMPANY INC US	286
68	MORGAN STANLEY	285
69	STANFORD UNIVERSITY	279
70	WASHINGTON UNIV IN ST LOUIS	278
71	VERIZON DATA SVCS INC	276
72	NYC-HHC HARLEM HOSPITAL CENTER	276
73	UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH	275
74	INDIANA UNIVERSITY	273
75	OHIO STATE UNIV	271
76	EVEREST CONSULTING GROUP INC	269
77	UNIV OF MINNESOTA	269
78	AMTEX SYSTEMS INC	268
79	UW MADISON	268
80	STATE UNIV OF NY AT STONY BROOK	262
81	AMAZON GLOBAL RESOURCES INC	262
82	CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION	256
83	DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT	255
84	UNIV OF CA DAVIS	254
85	NORTHWESTERN UNIV	251
86	SYNTEL INC	250
87	UNIV OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA	247
88	GLOBALCYNEX INC	247
89	KANBAY INCORPORATED	246
90	AMERICAN SOLUTIONS INC	242
91	UNIV OF FLORIDA INTL CENTER	240
92	UCLA	239
93	DUKE UNIV UNIV MED CTR & AFFIL INS	238
94	MOUNT SINAI MEDICAL CENTER	236
95	BANK OF AMERICA N A	236
96	SOFTWARE RESEARCH GROUP INC	234
97	BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE	234
98	MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL	232
99	CIBER INC	232
100	VERINON TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS LTD	230

[mnehring]

OK, I understand Microsoft and other international companies.. but NYC Schools????

[nwrep]

OK, I understand Microsoft and other international companies.. but NYC Schools????

Could be IT support staff.

[Man50D]

Indian IT firms would find the process much easier if they sent their workers into the U.S. through the Mexican border.

[Ironfocus]

I work for one of the companies on the list, and from personal experience know at least an equal amount of previous years H1B visa-holders leave the country. It is pretty much parity for us.

[nwrep]

Indian IT firms would find the process much easier if they sent their workers into the U.S. through the Mexican border

Ha, you are assuming they will get easy entry into Mexico. Don't forget, Mexico is very discerning on who it lets in.

[mnehring]

But there isn’t a need to hire international IT support staff for a domestic school system. You are not dealing with clients on the international market who may have special language or technical needs that would be tough to fill with US citizens. (I know, I know..)

[nwrep]

Yes, but you are assuming you can find qualified Americans who can do that work who don’t have a bad attitude, and are willing to work long hours.

[Salo]

Tech pings.

[kalee]

ping

[mnehring]

That’s why I don’t fault international operating companies. Microsoft, for example, has hundreds of millions of customers in India, thus, the need for highly qualified employees who happen to speak Hindi. There is a place for H1-B visas, and the operations trade both ways...

...but, based on this list, there are a lot of non-international operating companies that are taking advantage of this... if anything, just like many things, abuse of the system is killing it and making people turn on the program as a whole.

[Man50D]

Ha, you are assuming they will get easy entry into Mexico. Don't forget, Mexico is very discerning on who it lets in.

Ha, I just found the flaw in your statement! Mexicans are only discerning to those who want to stay in Mexico! Mexicans won't be discerning if Indians make it clear they are just passing through to enter the U.S. Now it's your turn to pick apart my statement. ;O)

[Salo]

I don’t see Apple on the list, which is interesting.

[ClaireSolt]

My son got a degree in CS from a good program in MN. While Microsoft was demanding h1B visas they were only interviewing ivy league and ignoring other programs.

[Moose4]

Same here. My employer (which is on that list, and just got bought out/taken private by a smaller company mostly operating in India, so you savvy types can figure out who it is) has a fairly strong Indian presence, and in addition to bringing in a significant number of H-1Bs, they’ve built up significant offshore operations and send the work there.

}:-)4

[mnehring]

Yes, but you are assuming you can find qualified Americans who can do that work who don’t have a bad attitude, and are willing to work long hours.

:->
No S***

The H1B holders I've worked with come in every day appreciating their job and work their asses off, and the whole team is better because of their example... these are the kind of immigrants we want to attract.. (not to mention they are legal and worked their asses of just as hard to qualify to come here in the first place..)

[EverOnward]

bump

[mnehring]

If memory serves me correctly, Apple has relatively few employees for a company with a 50b+ market cap (somewhere around 15k). A lot of their manufacturing is outsourced to several companies in Taiwan. But my memory on this may be way out of date..

[Moose4]

It’s always interesting to see lists like this. For example, take Capital One Financial (#44), where I was contracted, through another company on that list, up through the end of last year. COF was doing a massive systems upgrade, one of the biggest private-sector IT projects in the country for the entire 2004-06 timeframe. Those 362 H-1Bs listed for Capital One are only the ones THEY brought in. There were hundreds more under the auspices of the various contracting firms that were supplying bodies for the projects (several of which are on that list as well). I would say that in the area I worked in, well over half the workers were foreign nationals, mostly Indian, some Asian, a very few from Europe. Native-born Americans, of whatever race, were a distinct minority.

But, the COF project shows the beauty (from a corporate standpoint) of the H-1B as well as contract labor. The project’s done, everything is working fine...they can let the folks go back to India or let someone else pick up the visa, drop the contracts, and trim their costs without having to go through the public hassle of laying off large numbers of employees. (Though I think they’re doing that too.)

}:-)4

[Jedidah]

Those school system jobs don’t pay nearly what most industry jobs do. Bottom rung on the ladder.