There is great charm about on-site (read USA) work in employees of
Indian IT service industry. This is also seen as great tactic by your employer to
keep you engaged with company and not hop job. You are often offered an
on-site trip if you are the project savior and decide to quit. And few
of you indeed get to go to client place with great pride. But do you get
to go on work visa? By and large answer is
NO. And
probably you don't even know that you are sent to work on illegal visa,
famously known as B1 visa. There is nothing illegal about B1 visa per se
but this category of visa allows only
business meeting or attending seminars.
This is why there is initial cap of 3 months to stay. Once it is
stamped by your employer that you would travel on-site, this how whole story
goes -
- You are scheduled for an interview with US
consulate. Your HR comes to train you on how you should speak about
supposed business trip and not utter a word about work