Indian Companies Are America-Bound

The southern Indian city of Hyderabad is home to the 500-year-old Chilkur Balaji Temple, which features a statue of Lord Vishnu, the Hindu deity. The monument has become a magnet for workers such as Ravi Shanker, who seek divine help in securing a work permit from Washington, D.C. Shanker, who lives in Bangalore, works for Kodiak Networks, a telecom services company in Plano, Tex., and the company needs him stateside to help its client AT&T develop software. “A visa is not under my control, my employer’s control, or my country’s control,” says Shanker. “The only way to change my luck is through God.”

With the Obama administration applying tougher standards for H-1B and L-1 work visas in an effort to protect jobs at home, Indian companies aren’t relying on prayer to staff their U.S. operations. Instead they’re hiring tech workers who are American citizens or hold green cards. They’re facing pressure by their American clients, which spent $27.7 billion on outsourcing services last year, to move some operations from India to the U.S. for faster customer support.