NEW DELHI : With the United States government becoming tougher on immigration rules under Donald Trump's rule, several Indian IT companies including Infosys and Wipro are having a tough time in sending their employees on H-1B visa to work in the US, according to a latest report.

Even as the denial rate for new H-1B visa applications was as high as 45% for India's IT bellwether Infosys, Google was somehow lucky as only 3% of its petitions were rejected by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), according to National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP).

The data pertains to the first three quarters of FY 2019 (October-June). In the US, the financial calendar runs from October-September.

For American multinationals like Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, Google, Apple and Facebook, the rejection rates varied between 2% to 8%. Employees of Apple and Facebook had the lowest denial rate.

The NFAP report, which provides a detailed break-down of company-wise rejection rates, shows that when it came to Indian IT companies, the rejection rates went up manifold.

In 2015, 4% of all H-1B visa applicants sent by Tech Mahindra Americas were rejected but the figure shot up to 41% this year. For TCS, the denial rate was as high as 34% this year, Wipro 53% and Infosys 45%. In 2015, during the earlier dispensation, the rejection rates varied between 2%-7% for these Indian companies, according to the report.

A change in US policy is also reflected in cases where an existing H-1B visa holder applied for a renewal of his or her work visa. Infosys employees faced the highest rejection rate of 29%, according to the report. For Wipro, the figure stood at 19% and TCS 22%.

If we look at the overall figures, every fourth H1-B visa application got rejected. The US government issues about 85,000 such visas every year out of which an estimated 70% goes to Indians alone. Most H-1B applicants from India are IT professionals.

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