2 senators question H-1B visa use

Contending that the H-1B visa programme is being abused to displace qualified American workers, two US lawmakers have asked nine Indian companies with operations in the US, which use 20,000 of such visas, to disclose details about their workforce and their use of the special programme.

Infosys Technologies, Wipro Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Patni Computer Systems, i-Flex Solutions Inc, Satyam Computer Services, Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd, Tech Mahindra Americas Inc and Mphasis Corp figure on this list.

As the US Senate gets ready to take up the comprehensive immigration reform legislation, the two top lawmakers "" Republican Senator Charles Grassley and Democratic Senator Richard Durbin "" said "more and more it appears that companies are using H-1B visas to displace qualified American workers."

Grassley said in a statement, "As we move closer to debate on an immigration bill, I continue to hear how people want to increase the number of H-1B visas that are available to companies. Considering the high amount of fraud and abuse in the visa programme, we need to take a good, hard look at the employers that are using H-1B visas and how they are using them".

When contacted by Business Standard, most of the companies denied receiving any letter.

"At this juncture, we are doing our homework on the issue. We do not have any comments," said an Infosys spokesperson. The responses from Satyam, Wipro and Mphasis were similar.

Meanwhile, India protested against the move, saying such missives from American law-makers would "vitiate the atmosphere" of WTO negotiations on services.

"I am taking it up with the US Trade Representative... that such letters are better written through the USTR rather than to companies (directly)," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said.

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Quota Raj for H1B visas

1998
Quota increased to 115,000

2001
The number was raised to 195,000

2004
Slides down to 90,000 due to economic slowdown

2007
Current cap at 65,000