The US denied one in five H-1B visa petitions to individuals in 2019, the denial rate higher for Indian IT companies compared with American firms, a study that analysed official figures says.

The H-1B visa allows US companies to employ foreign workers in jobs that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology firms depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

While the denial rate dropped to 21 per cent in 2019 from 24 per cent in 2018, the National Foundation for American Policy says it was much higher for Indian companies.

For instance, the denial rate for Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys in 2019 was 31 and 35 per cent, respectively, while it was 47 per cent for Wipro and 37 per cent for Tech Mahindra. For the American companies Amazon and Google, it was four per cent each.

For Microsoft, the denial rate was six per cent during the same period, and for Facebook and Walmart, it was just three per cent each.

“In 2020, the Trump administration is expected to introduce a new H-1B regulation that will make it more difficult for employers to hire high-skilled foreign nationals in the United States,” the foundation said this week.

India and the US have discussed the subject of H-1B visas many times in the past. During President Donald Trump’s maiden official visit to India in February, the matter was raised again and Indian professionals’ contribution to the high-tech sector flagged.

Last December, during the “2+2 dialogue” in Washington, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar had stressed the importance of people-to-people ties, saying they were the defining elements of the Indo-US friendship.

Since 2004, the annual limit of 65,000 H-1B petitions and the 20,000 exemptions from that limit for individuals with an advanced degree from a US university have been exhausted every fiscal year.

The 85,000 new H-1B petitions allowed every year account for only 0.05 per cent of the US labour force of approximately 164 million.

In addition to the higher denial rates under the Trump administration, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data show that the percentage of completed cases with Requests for Evidence (RFEs) rose from 22.3 per cent in 2015 to 40.2 per cent in 2019. RFEs are sought when the authorities feel they need additional evidence to make a decision on an H-1B case.

According to the report, new H-1B visas for the top seven India-based companies declined by 64 per cent between fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2019.

The seven companies had only 5,428 H-1B petitions for the initial employment approved in fiscal 2019, accounting for six per cent of the 85,000 H-1B petitions for companies, it said.

Denials may have contributed to this decline but the primary reason for the drop in H-1B visas is a choice by companies to build their domestic workforce in the US and rely less on visas, the report said.

In 2018, there had been a 10 per cent decline in the approval of H-1B visas by the US.

The Trump administration has tightened the noose on firms violating H-1B visa rules. Trump has himself accused many IT companies of abusing the work visas to deny jobs to American workers.

Two years ago, Trump had signed the “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, which seeks to create higher wages and employment rates for US workers and protect their economic interests by rigorously enforcing and administering US immigration laws.

It also directs the department of homeland security, in coordination with other agencies, to advance policies that help ensure that H-1B visas are awarded to the most skilled or highest-paid beneficiaries.