IndiaPost.com - US Senators now fear abuse of visa, seek checks

Washington: Two US lawmakers, who had accused nine Indian IT firms of abusing the H-1B visa, have suggested checks on the L visa which they suspect was being used by companies to circumvent worker protections required under the H-1B programme.

Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Dick Durbin of Illinois have argued that the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services have provided information showing that many foreign outsourcing firms that send American jobs overseas are using L visas in large numbers. "The information provided showed that many of the same companies identified as using the most H-1B visas were the same companies that used the most L visas," they said in a statement.

The two lawmakers had last month written to the companies, including TCS, Infosys and Wipro, asking them to disclose details about their workforce on the suspicion that H-1B visas were being misused to displace qualified American workers. "Under current law, employers can use the L visa programme to evade restrictions on the H-1B programme because it does not include protections for American workers.

This demonstrates the need for additional checks on the L visa programme," the Senators said. "This information certainly makes one wonder if companies are using the L visa to circumvent the worker protections required under the H-1B programme.

I'd like to know how many American workers these companies hire compared to the number of foreign workers they bring in," Grassley said. "American workers deserve the best chance at jobs in this country, and this data makes one question if they are too often overlooked" Grassley added.

"The L visa is designed to give multinational companies the freedom to transfer managers and specialists within the company to their US offices," maintained Senator Durbin. "But some of these companies have hundreds, and in some cases thousands of L visa workers.

I find it hard to believe that any one company has that many individuals that are legitimately being transferred within a single year. "I find it even harder to believe that these L visas are being used appropriately when many of the same companies are some of the largest employers of H1-B workers.

It's clear that foreign outsourcing firms are abusing the system and we can't let that continue" he added. Incidentally, four US lawmakers last month introduced a bill in the Senate proposing to increase the number of H-1B visas by 50,000 annually from 65,000 at present.

Senators Grassley and Durbin have said that they would continue to investigate the blanket L petition that allows companies to bring in a limitless amount of workers and have expressed about the screening of individuals through this process.

The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, has said very clearly that provisions in the comprehensive immigration bill pertaining to the highly skilled visas will be looked into very carefully; and Senators Grassley and Durbin are keen on pursuing their amendment on the issue in the final bill.