"Infosys has a sufficient number of visas at this point. Extension of stay of employees in the US, amendment in the terms of employment and job portability (change in employer) are not covered under the H1-B ceiling.

"Also, the quota for the next financial year opens on October 1, 2004. Given all of the above, we believe there will be no impact on our operations at this point," Hema Ravichandar, senior vice-president (human resources), Infosys, said.

Foreseeing such a development, most software majors had taken pre-emptive steps.

Visa worries

The US govt will not accept new H1-B visa applications till April 1, 2004, and no additional visas will be issued till October 1,2004 The US Congress has decided to cap H1-B visas at 65,000 for this fiscal year H-1B visas allow US companies to bring skilled foreign labour into the country

 "Cognizant has been very aggressive in filling its visa needs. Our planning for getting the visas for our people was based on the assumption that this quota would be exhausted before March.

"Based on the numbers that we're looking at for this year, we feel we are adequately covered as far as people with visa are concerned. As part of our business continuity, we always keep a large number of people in India visa-ready, and obviously we have increased that number some more. In addition, Cognizant qualifies for the L1 programme for certain people," Lakshmi Narayanan, president and CEO, Cognizant Technology Solutions, said.

"Wipro has some visas in the pipeline that are still being processed. As Wipro's charter has been global delivery, the shortage of H1-B visas will lead to more and more work being done offshore, which means more benefits passed on to customers. This may also lead to clients visiting Wipro more often," Laxman Badiga, chief executive (talent transformation & staffing), Wipro Technologies, said.

However, smaller software companies are bracing for some fire-fighting. "This move is a definite disadvantage for SMEs, which do not have the depth in H1-B visas. A sudden requirement on the part of the client for specific skill sets could be difficult to meet. However, we are evolving our strategy and considering hiring H1-B visa holders in the US to meet our client requirements," Joseph Louis, vice-president (human resources), Kshema Technologies, said. Kshema is one of the emerging mid-size software companies.

On the other hand, software majors are truly going global by employing more and more local professionals for their US operations.