US Senators now fear abuse of L 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 today 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.

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.