SEC filing for Tata

Date: Monday, February 27, 2006 11:43 AM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

February 27, 2006 No. 1427

In the newsletter (L-1 visas edge out H-1Bs, No. 1425) I mentioned that I
wasn't able to find an SEC filing for Tata Consultancy. That seemed very
odd, especially considering they are India's largest bodyshop and they
dwarf others like Wipro that do have a listing.

I contacted a very helpful person at the SEC in Washington DC - here is
what I found out.

Many foreign companies do business in the United States that aren't
registered with the SEC. Companies only need to file with the SEC if they
trade stocks or securities in the U.S. Although divisions of Tata do trade
in the U.S., Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) trades on the Bombay Stock
Exchange (BSE) so they are not required to file at the SEC.

You can look at the current TCS Stock Price
http://www.tcs.com/investors/SharePrice.aspx

The Bombay Stock Exchange can be viewed here:
http://www.bseindia.com/

The SEC filings aren't necessarily useful to determine how many
nonimmigrants a foreign company employes even if they are registered.
That's because they aren't required to report the numbers of H-1B or L-1
visa holders they use - they are only required to report how many employees
they have.

The regulations for these SEC filings can be found here.

http://www.law.uc.edu/ccl/index.html
Standard Instructions for Filing Forms under
the Securities Act of 1933, Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Energy
Policy and Conservation Act of 1975
Regulation S-K

I used Wipro's 6-K filing for June 30, 2003 for this study. It can be found
at:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1123799/000089161803004428/f92443e6vk.htm

Using Wipro as a case study, we can view the regulations and compare them
to what Wipro reported. You can read the two regulations versus Wipro's
response. It appears that the reason Wipro reported the number of H-1B and
L-1 visa holders was to make their case that they need more of them. They
could comply with the SEC merely by saying that they employ 2022 (look at
filing below where they report 1312 L-1s and 710 H-1Bs). Nothing requires
them to say how many of their employees are foreign nationals and they
don't have to break the number down by visa.

Domestically owned companies aren't required to report the number of
foreign employees either, so the SEC filings information on H-1B and L-1
visa are nothing more than information a company volunteers.

In conclusion, the SEC filings aren't that much help when it comes to
learning about how many visa holders a foreign company employes. The
statistics reported from companies such as Wipro are probably never
investigated so their accuracy cannot be verified.

***** WIPRO FILING COMPARED TO SEC REGULATIONS *****

Regulation S-K (101)(c)(1)(x)
Competitive conditions in the business involved including, where material,
the identity of the particular markets in which the registrant competes, an
estimate of the number of competitors and the registrant's competitive
position, if known or reasonably available to the registrant. Separate
consideration shall be given to the principal products or services or
classes of products or services of the segment, if any.

Wipro Form 6-K June 30, 2003
Restrictions on immigration may affect our ability to compete for and
provide services to clients in the United States, which could hamper our
growth and cause our revenue to decline.
If U.S. immigration laws change and make it more difficult for us to obtain
H-1B and L-1 visas for our employees, our ability to compete for and
provide services to clients in the United States could be impaired.
Although there is no limit to new L-1 petitions, there is a limit to the
aggregate number of new H-1B petitions that the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service may approve in any government fiscal year. We may
not be able to obtain the H-1B visas necessary to bring critical Indian
professionals to the United States on an extended basis during years in
which this limit is reached.

Regulation S-K (101)(c)(1)(xiii)
The number of persons employed by the registrant.

Wipro Form 6-K June 30, 2003
As of June 30, 2003, the majority of our personnel in the United States
held H-1B visas (710 persons) or L-1 visas (1312 persons).

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