Two US Senators -- Grassley and Durbin -- who have been raising questions about H-1B visa abuse by offshore outsourcing vendors have now alleged that the offshoring firms are also using the L visas to circumvent the system.
Leading Indian and global information technology firms such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Cognizant Technology Solutions, IBM, Satyam Computer Services and Wipro top the list of L visa users for the financial year 2006-07.
TCS received 4,887 of the L visas in 2006-07. The company, which was also awarded 3,046 H-1B visas last year, was given 5,517 L visas in 2005-06, Durbin and Grassley said.
The two Senators said Teaneck, New Jersey-based Cognizant Technology Solutions, which has offshore facilities in India, received 2,226 H-1B visas and 3,520 L visas in FY06. The latter figure was up from 1,888 visas the year before.
The debate has cropped up even as a revamped immigration reform Bill is to be presented on the Senate floor this week. The L visas, which include the L-1 and other lesser-known documents, can be used by multinational companies to transfer employees from overseas locations to offices in the US.
They don't have some of the restrictions that H-1B visas do, such as the requirement that workers be paid prevailing wages on par with the salaries of American workers.
Moreover, while H-1B visas are capped at 65,000 a year, there is no annual limit to the number of L visas. The number of such visas issued has increased from 39,886 in 2001 to 53,144 in 2006.
"I would like to know how many American workers these companies hire compared with the number of foreign workers they bring in," said Grassley in a press statement.
"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 H-1B workers. It's clear that the foreign outsourcing firms are abusing the system and we can't let that continue," added Durbin.
Grassley and Durbin said they would continue to investigate the blanket L petition that allows companies to bring in a limitless amount of workers.
Earlier this month, the duo had sent letters to the top-nine foreign-owned companies, including IT biggies such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Satyam, to determine the companies' usage of H-1B visas.