Whistleblowers claim TCS engaged in fraud to skirt U.S. visa system
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES — Three ex-employees of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s biggest IT outsourcing company, have raised allegations of visa fraud.
As reported by Bloomberg, the whistleblowers claim that TCS used the L-1A visas, which are for managers and executives, to bring in front-line workers to the United States.
In 2017, Anil Kini, a former IT manager at TCS, said he was told to create internal organizational charts to make the company seem to have more managers than it did.
Kini said, “I was proud to be working for TCS. But then some things in life, there should be integrity in what you do.”
The second whistleblower, Vinod Govindharajan, claims that TCS used his L-1A visa in 2013 by telling the company he was a manager when he had no one reporting to him.
Govindharajan said, “It was a dream of mine to move to the U.S. But I was doing a sales role, nothing to do with management.”
The use of L-1A visas
Bloomberg found out that TCS has been getting more L-1A visas than any other company. Between October 2019 and September 2023, TCS got over 6,500 L-1A visa approvals, which is more than the next seven largest recipients combined. This is a far cry from the number of managers that TCS reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
| Outsourcing Company | L-1A Visa Approvals |
| Tata Consultancy Services | 6,682 |
| Infosys | 1,289 |
| Cognizant Tech Solutions | 1,122 |
| Accenture | 952 |
| Genpact | 799 |
| Deloitte Consulting | 772 |
| Tech Mahindra Americas | 743 |
| IBM | 730 |
Source: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
In 2022, TCS had about 31,000 U.S.-based employees, and it categorized fewer than 600 of them as executives and managers, yet it got 1,969 new or renewed L-1A visas that same fiscal year.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) points out that the L visa program is different from the H-1B program in that it has no numerical caps or prevailing wage requirements.
”Some employers use the L visa program, and particularly the L-1A manager visa, to evade H-1B visa requirements,” FAIR says.
TCS has not admitted guilt, saying, “We strongly refute these inaccurate allegations by certain ex-employees, which have previously been dismissed by multiple courts and tribunals. TCS rigorously adheres to all U.S. laws.”
Nevertheless, the accusations and data analysis are a cause for concern regarding the L-1A visas’ use in the IT outsourcing sector and their effects on American workers.
