US Senators question TCS on H-1B hires and American layoffs

US Senators have asked TCS to explain its US hiring practices, including H-1B recruitment, wage parity, and American layoffs. The company must respond by October 10 amid an ongoing EEOC investigation and growing scrutiny of H-1B visa practices

New Delhi: US Senators have asked India’s largest IT firm, TCS, to furnish details about its hiring practices in the US, whether the company has displaced any Americans with H-1B workers, as well as wage parity between H-1B hires and its local US staff.

In a recent letter to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO K Krithivasan, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley and ranking member Richard Durbin noted that the company has announced plans to lay off over 12,000 employees worldwide, including American staff.

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TCS laid off nearly five dozen employees in its Jacksonville office alone, according to the letter. “At the same time you have been laying off American employees, you have been filing H-1B visa petitions for thousands of foreign workers,” it said.

The letter cited data from fiscal year 2025, when TCS received approval to hire 5,505 H-1B employees, noting this made the company the second-largest employer of newly-approved H-1B beneficiaries in the US.

“With all of the homegrown American talent relegated to the sidelines, we find it hard to believe that TCS cannot find qualified American tech workers to fill these positions,” Senators Grassley and Durbin said a letter dated September 24, 2025.

Emphasising that TCS was already under investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for allegedly firing older American workers in favour of newly hired South-Asian H-1B employees, the letter went on to say that the company “is doing itself no favours by replacing Americans with H-1Bs while this investigation is ongoing”.

An email sent by PTI to TCS for comments did not elicit a response. In all, the Senators have raised nine questions for TCS and sought a detailed response with data by October 10, 2025. Among various questions, it asked why TCS is hiring foreign tech workers when hundreds of thousands of American tech workers have been laid off over the past few years, and whether the company makes a`good faith effort’ to fill open positions with Americans before filing H-1B petitions.

“Has TCS displaced any American employees with H-1B employees?” they asked in the letter. The company has also been questioned on whether it hides H-1B recruitment ads by listing them separately from general hiring ads. “Are your company’s H-1B hires provided the same salary and benefits as your American workers with the same qualifications? Please provide specific details,” it said.

The letter further questions the company on whether it outsources any hiring to contractors or staffing firms that place H-1B workers within the organisation. “Of the H-1B workers currently working at TCS, how many of those workers are directly employed and paid by TCS…Of the H-1B petitions TCS received approval for in 2025, how many workers were outsourced to other companies, and how many employees’ salaries were paid by a firm other than TCS?” the letter asked.

The letter comes at a time when H-1B visa filings have come under intense scrutiny. US President Donald Trump recently signed a proclamation that will raise the fee for new H1-B visas to a steep USD 100,000. The H-1B visa fee ranges from USD 2,000 to USD 5,000, depending on employer size and other costs.

The magnitude of the new H-1B visa application fee for fresh petitions – math of which works out to USD 500 million in case of 5,000 filings – may nudge IT companies to expand offshore delivery or increase local hiring, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in a note last month.

The USD 100,000 fee will start to impact from FY27 onwards, when new petitions are filed. The visa applications for FY26 are already locked in.