Murali Balasubramanyam, senior vice president of human resources and recruiting at iGate Mastech, said that particular job advertisement is for a large client that first tried to hire U.S. citizens and permanent residents and was unable to do so. When clients "cannot find suitable candidates, they come to staffing companies like us and say, 'We haven't been able to find a local citizen here; can you now get us an H-1B candidate?'"

Balasubramanyam said that for whatever reason, the IT employer may not be comfortable sponsoring the H-1B visa holders themselves and turn to IT staffing firms for help. Other iGate Mastech ads on Dice that were checked did not have similar H-1B-specific requirements.

Miano said that iGate Mastech is one of the companies he has filed a complaint against, and he noted that some of the companies seeking H-1B employees may be small, possibly operating out of a private residence in some cases, or are staffing agencies. Larger, better-known IT vendors aren't cited in his complaints.