Infosys responds to CBS' visa fraud story: complete text

Infosys has denied allegations of United States visa fraud by the company. The company's CEO SD Shibulal told NDTV Profit that it has in the past taken disciplinary action, including dismissal, whenever violations have been reported.

Read: Infosys chief denies visa fraud, says has fired employees for violations

Infosys is facing a lawsuit in the US, based on the testimony of a whistleblower employee, over alleged violation of US visa rules. On Thursday, CBS news channel reported the story, which could have repercussions for the Indian IT services giant, given the upcoming US Presidential elections in November, and increasing protectionist rhetoric from candidates.

Here is the complete statement in response to “CBS This Morning” story on Infosys:

As a global leader in consulting and technology, Infosys has a policy that requires our employees to understand and fully comply with the immigration laws and visa requirements in the 30 countries of the world where we do business for our clients. This includes work for our clients in the United States.

On occasions where individuals have reported seeing or hearing of employees who may have acted in ways inconsistent with our above-mentioned policy, we thoroughly investigate these reports and, based on our findings, take appropriate disciplinary action consistent with our published Code of Ethics. In some cases, this action has included dismissal from the company.

We can say, without qualification, that:

There is not, nor was there ever a policy to use the B-1 visa program to circumvent the H-1B program. Similarly there is not, nor was there ever a policy to misuse the H1-B program; Infosys did not have a policy of sending employees to the United States on B-1 visas to do the work expected of workers on H-1B visas; Reports of employee behavior inconsistent with company policy, immigration laws or visa requirements were handled in accordance with our published procedures for handling whistleblower complaints and in compliance with the law; And, consistent with our Code of Ethics, we have not retaliated against any employee for bringing any suspected incident to the company’s attention.

Any allegation or assertion that there is or was a corporate policy of evading the law in conjunction with the B-1 visa program is simply untrue.

Finally, the story inaccurately represented the size and scope of our B-1 program in the United States. The number of our employees traveling to the U.S. on B-1 visas is, at any point in time, only a small fraction of all U.S. travel by Infosys employees -- typically less than 2% of the total number of Infosys personnel in the U.S.

And the average trip to the U.S. for an employee on a B-1 visa is less than four weeks, not up to a year, as the story suggests. The numbers and calculations reported in today’s story are inaccurate and misleading.