Accenture sees 'opportunity' in H-1B visa changes, impact limited to only 5% of US workforce

Accenture

Global IT major Accenture is seeing an 'opportunity' in the proposed changes to the US H-1B visa rules, with little impact as of now given that it has only about 5 percent of the workforce under this category, Chair and CEO Julie Sweet told analysts during an earnings call on September 25.

“The impact on Accenture is not big, given just 5 percent of our people in the US are on H-1B visas, and these are largely core skills,” Sweet said. “Every time there’s a big policy change, unfolded over decades, it usually drives more business. We see an opportunity to stay close and help clients navigate and comply with the new policy changes.”

Accenture, which employs more than 779,000 people worldwide, has been less reliant on temporary US visas than some of its Indian IT peers. The Dublin-headquartered company has over 300,000 employees in India, making it the largest employee base for the company globally.

IT firms, with significant exposure to the US market, have been under heavy pressure after US President Trump recently signed a proclamation imposing a staggering $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas. The move, part of the administration’s broader immigration overhaul, is set to make it costlier for firms to hire Indian technology professionals.

IT service providers, including Accenture, are big users of H-1B visas. They typically staff their US projects with skilled workers from India, but the new fee would directly threaten this cost-saving model.

Following the fee hike announcement, apart from other IT and tech companies, Accenture’s shares had declined by 1.3 percent.

The Department of Homeland Security on September 23 had unveiled a new proposal to overhaul the lottery-based H-1B visa system by introducing a wage-based selection process prioritising higher-paid, higher-skilled applicants.

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