On the home page of NRISoft they boast that they are an alternative to working for H-1b sweat shops and H1b body shops. Well it's always nice to have an alternative to indentured servitude and exploitation, if they really offer it.

They even quote Norman Matloff on prevailing wages. When I saw that I couldn't help but think of those TV advertisements that claim their drug is "recommended by doctors". That's quite clever and could be the first time a bodyshop has said something positive about Matloff, but of course they claim they are an un-sweatshop, which might also make them an unbodyshop. Matloff advocates that the prevailing salary regulations should be changed in order to reduce the loopholes, so what better person to quote?

I'm not sure what this means from their FAQs page, and I have read it several times. Maybe something was lost in the translation.

War on Sweat Shops and Body Shops! Is NRISoft fighting this war? No, NRISoft is not fighting the war against exploitation. NRISoft is just a weapon.

NRISoft claims they are against exploitation, which is good, but they seem to have no qualms about discriminating against everyone but Indian nationals. Case in point from the FAQs page:

NRISoft is taking applications from professionals holding H1b visa status. We predominantly serve the H1b community. Although we do accept professionals with greencard and American citizenship.

NRISoft states that they accept applications from Americans, but they never claim that Americans are hired. How many US citizens do you think are on their payroll?

NRISoft gets more specific about what type of foreigner they are looking for on their "about us" page. After a list of companies they contract to, such as Apple, HP, IBM, Motorola, Sun, etc. they drop the real bomb—they only want to hire Indian nationals. This probably means that H-1Bs from other countries are about as welcome as US citizens. Just guessing but I'll bet that NRI is an acronym for "non resident Indian".

NRISoft is formed to help non resident Indians on H1b visa status to market themselves and get paid at going rate in the United States.

iGate/Mastech recently was fined $45,000 for advertising that was no more blatant. The fine was a tiny tap on the wrist but you would think it would make other bodyshops hesitate. The message doesn't seem to be getting through to NRISoft, but maybe that's because they are an unsweatshop unbodyshop.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The quotes from the NRISoft website were copied slightly before my newsletter was published. Don't assume that the contents of their pages will remain the same by the time you go there.