Increased US visa fees no deterrent for Infosys plans
by Harleen Kaur - September 5, 2010
United States, 5th September: The latest hike in the US visa fees introduced by the US immigration is not going to have any impact on the margins of Infosys Technologies, an Indian IT firm having operations also in the US.
This is due to the firm’s decision to opt for extreme offshoring to significantly cut its dependence on US H-1 and L1 visas.
Announcing about this, Member, Group Head and Executive Council, Sales and Marketing, Infosys Technologies, Mr. Subhash Dhar, said that the increases in the US visa fees announced recently will not have any much of any difference for the company financials.
Big IT companies like Infosys are likely to look for passing on this increased cost to the customers although it will not be required to be paid by them.
Customers are expected to ask for increased offshore working and the company is only going to agree with the customers since this will help both the company as well as the customers not get affected by the US visa fee increase, Mr. Dhar added.
The option of offshore working has been discussed with the customers by the Infosys several times whenever any US visas or contracts are given for renewal or on formalization of new contracts, he added.
The cost is, undoubtedly, increasing for the company, but it is quite manageable, said MD and CEO of Infosys Technologies, Kris Gopalakrishnan. But, already, several pilot schemes have been conducted by the firm with numerous clients in America. It has shown that by opting to remotevoffshoring, the company can get outsourced projects transitioned to India.
Around 7,000 to 8,000 US visa applications are made by Infosys Technologies every year out of which 50 percent pertain to renewals of US visa applications in the last three quarters while the remaining half are applied in June quarter each financial year.
Hence, by opting for offshore working, Infosys will take the increased US visa fee in its stride and will not the company’s operations get affectedvby the hike in any way. So, Infosys will absorb the increased US visa fee and its margin performance for the year 2011 will not be affected in any way.
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