UK ICT Visas: TCS and Infosys dominate
By Sumir Singh

London-based Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) was created on January 1, 2009 following the decision of the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo) to admit members from other professional staffing sectors outside IT and engineering. Members of APSCo have an annual turnover of 6 Billion pounds.

APSCo is one of the most high profile HR firms in Europe with members who have deep pockets.  On Nov, 27, 2009 an APSCo annual charity ball raised 60,000 pounds for a children’s charity - ChildLine. APSCo uses the same clout to campaign against any misuse of the British working visas mainly used by Indian tech companies.  Last year, the British Government granted 30,000 ICT (Intra Company Transfer) Visas to non-EU tech workers to enter the country.

APSCo filed a Freedom of Information request with the British Government enquiring about details of such ICT Visas and has now released the results to the British media. ICTs were set up to import senior management or people with specific company skills. But like the H1B working visa in USA, there is some abuse of the system. Contractoruk is reporting:

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Almost half of the 30,000 foreign IT workers who last year entered the UK on Intra Company transfers came from just seven companies headquartered in India.

Figures from the Home Office show that of the 29, 240 non-European IT workers who came to the UK in 2008, 43% of them were sponsored by firms on the sub-continent.

The three lead users of the ICT scheme were Tata, Infosys and Wipro, who placed 13%, 9% and 7%, respectively, of the 12,573 IT staff that the Indian firms imported.

The remaining four outfits, who between them sponsored 15% of the total, were Cognizant, Tech Mahindra, Satyam and HCL.
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