E-Paper
Can TCS survive without H-1B? CEO K Krithivasan's big statement amid visa crackdown
TCS CEO K Krithivasan announced the company will not hire new H-1B employees this fiscal year, focusing instead on local talent.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) gave clarification about its hiring policy in the US. CEO K Krithivasan has confirmed that the company would not be hiring any new H-1B employees this fiscal year, as per a news report.
There will be a gradual reduction in the use of visa-based workers as TCS will now concentrate on hiring talent locally, according to The Times of India report.
Approximately 11,000 of TCS's 32,000–33,000 US workers are currently on H-1B visas. Krithivasan stated in the report that they would employ fewer individuals than the number of approvals annually, even among those who have been granted. He went on to say that H-1B jobs are not meant to be replaced by L-1 visas, which have very specific uses.
The declaration is made in the context of a low demand for IT services, where growth is constrained by low customer satisfaction and cautious discretionary spending. Notably, TCS recently reduced its workforce by 2%.
Krithivasan also emphasized that the procedure was carried out “with a great deal of compassion and care,” providing impacted workers with a reasonable severance while informing the larger workforce of the strategic justification.
Krithivasan's statements are especially relevant given that TCS is the second-largest beneficiary of the H-1B program in 2025, trailing only Amazon, with over 5,000 H-1B visas issued in 2025 alone.
Krithivasan reacts to Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin's H1-B queries
Following the layoffs, US Senators Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin questioned the firm's employment of over 5,500 H-1B workers, which the tech CEO addressed directly during the interview.
In response to queries from US Senators, Krithivasan stated, “I was neither happy nor unhappy. It gave me an opportunity to articulate our positions more clearly and to address the Senators’ questions about the H-1B issue.”
‘There is no reliance on H-1B visas,’ says Krithivasan
The TCS CEO explained that the “figure of 5,500” referred to people modifying or extending their H-1B petitions, whereas fresh applications were far lower, “probably around 2,500”.
“We have 31,000 to 32,000 employees in the US, of whom only 11,000 to 12,000 are on H-1B visas, while the rest are on other types of visas. We have been progressively increasing local workforce participation, which will continue because the way of work has changed with new kinds of projects and AI coming into play, where you need to work closely with the customer and need different skill sets,” Krithivasan was quoted as saying during an interview with Business Standard.
It is no longer simply about engineering capabilities; there is an increasing demand for innovative thinking and quick engineering abilities, he said. In FY26, according to Krithivasan, TCS sent only 500 people from India to the US on H-1B visas, indicating that “we can survive without them.” There is no reliance on H-1B visas, the TCS CEO added.
“There was a time when this was a significant retention policy, but over the past four-five years, it has been on a declining trend. It is now far less of a retention policy than it once was, and we should not be assessing today’s scenario through yesterday’s lens,” Krithivasan added.
