- News>
- World
US probing L-1 visa misuse
New York, June 03: American immigration officials are examining whether L-1 visa under which foreign companies can transfer their employees to their branches in the United States is being misused, a media report said.
New York, June 03: American immigration officials are examining whether L-1 visa under which foreign companies can transfer their employees to their branches in the United States is being misused, a media report said.
The issue being assessed is whether companies contracting
the employees they bring to US to other companies where they
could replace higher paid American jobs constitutes misuse.
Should they decide that it does, thousands of workers, a major
percentage from India, could be affected.
The assessment by the Bureau of Citizenship and
Immigration Services (BCIS) comes close on the heels of a bill
moved in the house of representatives that seeks to prevent
companies from hiring foreigners with L-1 visas.
Getting L-1 visa is much easier than H-LB work permit under which the companies are expected to pay minimum wages to the employees. In the three years since the technology bubble bust, the New York times says the companies are increasingly using L-1 visa to bring the workers to the United States.
The number of workers under L-1 had gone up to 57,700 last year from 41,739 in 1999, the paper reports.
Even as legal experts debate the legality of contracting workers, Congressman John . Mica, a republican, who introduced the bill told the paper that "when you have people using this to bring in lower-cost labour to displace Americans, it`s something we need to address."
The number of Americans who have been replaced by foreign contract workers is not known but US companies that use contract workers have said that the decision to hire them is based on factors like skills, and not on cost alone.
Bureau Report
Getting L-1 visa is much easier than H-LB work permit under which the companies are expected to pay minimum wages to the employees. In the three years since the technology bubble bust, the New York times says the companies are increasingly using L-1 visa to bring the workers to the United States.
The number of workers under L-1 had gone up to 57,700 last year from 41,739 in 1999, the paper reports.
Even as legal experts debate the legality of contracting workers, Congressman John . Mica, a republican, who introduced the bill told the paper that "when you have people using this to bring in lower-cost labour to displace Americans, it`s something we need to address."
The number of Americans who have been replaced by foreign contract workers is not known but US companies that use contract workers have said that the decision to hire them is based on factors like skills, and not on cost alone.
Bureau Report