Reality Check | Ephraim Schwartz » TAG: L-1 visas

February 28, 2008 | Comments: (0)

L-1 visas are being misused says immigration attorney

TAGS: L-1 visas

With the death of the Immigration Reform bill last year, the possibility of an increase in the cap for H-1B visas also died.

However, necessity being the mother of invention, companies are turning to another part of the alphabet, the L-1 visa, as a way to bring the same guest workers here that were unable to get in under the H-1B cap.

Now some believe the necessity is all about getting more skilled workers into the U.S. due to a dearth of skilled IT professionals in the States. Whereas others, myself included, believe the necessity is all about companies wanting cheap labor.

Meanwhile, Bob Meltzer, a top immigration attorney and CEO of VisaNow, an online immigration processing company, is one of the voices blowing the whistle on the current misuse of the L-1 visa.

One would assume the more avenues available for guess workers and or immigrants to apply for admission to the U.S., the more revenue potential for VisaNow.

So why is Meltzer blowing the whistle?

"We had people coming to us when they wanted to file L-1s [instead of H-1Bs] and we would say it is not appropriate," Meltzer told me. The motive, Meltzer explains, is to get Congress to recognize that the law is "bending toward breaking" and that Congress has failed to recognize the problem with the H-1B cap.

Obviously, Meltzer is in a position to know. He has been involved in immigration issues since the 80s.

[If you want more background on the L-1 visa go to this column, Senate opens inquiry of L-1 visa program I wrote last June. here. Also, read Homeland Security probes L-1 visa abuses in my March 2006 blog.]

The original intent of the L-1 visa was to allow multinationals or foreign companies with affiliates in the U.S. to bring in managers, executives, or people with specialized knowledge not available here.

The L-1A addresses the issue of managers and executives and L-1B allows people with "specialized skills" entry into the U.S. for a three-year stay.

But now the L category is being used where the H-1B falls short. If a company was going to bring someone in on an H-1B and missed the quota, now it may try to squeeze work credentials into the L category, says Meltzer.

But companies are getting greedy and bringing in dozens or even hundreds of workers in on the L-1, which is why the U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services and the Department of Labor are beginning to suspect it is being misused.

"Obviously you don't need a hundred managers," Meltzer says.

Last year's Immigration Reform bill had some language that would put a cap on L-1s.

This isn't the first time L-1s were misused nor the first time the government attempted to crack down on the abuse.

According to Meltzer, some countries that wanted to bring people into the States for whatever reasons used to say those people were being sent to open up a new branch of a company. Uncle Sam got suspicious and sent State Department officials to the address in the foreign country to check out the company only to find it did not exist.

The government appears to be leaning once more toward tighter controls. The level of requirements and support documentation for the L-1 visa is being much more stringently reviewed and examined than just a few years ago, according to Meltzer.

We can assume that if the government does crack down on the misuse of L-1s, the hue and cry for eliminating the cap on H-1Bs will grow more strident.

But with the election not until November and the new president not taking office until late January, don't expect anything to happen with a review of H-1B visas for at least eighteen months.

Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on February 28, 2008 11:32 AM

June 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Senators open inquiry of L-1 visa program

TAGS: L-1 visas

In response to a bipartisan request by Senators Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services provided the names of all companies that use L-1 visas. Now Senators Grassley and Durbin are opening an inquiry into the program.

The full list is 354 pages long and starts with Tata Consultancy Services, which uses 4,887 visas, and drifts down to dozens of companies that use only one L-1.

Senators Grassley and Durbin expressed their concern that many of the top companies on the L-1 list also use H-1B visas, potentially indicating abuse of the program.

It is also worth noting that a number of the top 20 companies listed are major suppliers of offshoring and outsourcing services.

Here's an excerpt from Grassley and Durbin:

"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. Under current law, employers can use the L visa program to evade restrictions on the H-1B program because it does not include protections for American workers. This demonstrates the need for additional checks on the L visa program."

I wrote about the problem with L-1 visas back in March 2006: "Homeland Security Probes L-1 Visa Abuses."

The column talked about the fact that the Department of Homeland Security issued a study the previous January on possible abuses of the L-1 visa program.

Here are some excerpts from that column.

"The program allows a foreign worker employed by a company overseas for at least one year to enter the United States temporarily, 'in order to continue to render his services to the same employer or a subsidiary or affiliate...in a capacity that is managerial, executive, or involves specialized knowledge.'

"According to Frank Robinson, CFO at Darwin Partners, insurance companies are bringing in foreign workers under L-1, providing food and lodging, but are paying the guest workers at the salary they were getting back home. If a typical programmer in the United States makes $60,000 to $80,000 per year, these workers are being paid as little as one-quarter of that. And they can stay as long as five to seven years.

"These workers may be employees of the insurance company; or worse, they could be employees of IT services companies, known as 'body shops,' who hire them out for a fee."

Here's one more excerpt from Grassley-Durbin.

"'This information certainly makes one wonder if companies are using the L visa to circumvent the worker protections required under the H-1B program. 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.'"

Here is the list of the top 20 companies using the L visa.

Rank     Company       L-1 Visas in FY 2006
1       Tata Consultancy Services    4,887
2       Cognizant Tech Solutions    3,520
3       IBM Corp.    1,237
4       Satyam Computer Services    950
5       Wipro Limited    839
6       HCL America Inc.    511
7       Deloitte & Touche    512
8       Patni Computer Systems    440
9       Intel Corp.    394
10       Kanbay Inc.    329
11       Honeywell International    320
12       Hewlett-Packard Company    316
13       Infosys Technologies    294
14       Accenture LLP    291
15       Caritor Inc.    231
16       Schlumberger Tech. Corp.    214
17       Oracle USA    176
18       Syntel Ltd.    171
19       Pricewaterhousecoopers LLP    168
20       Microsoft Corp.    168

For a list of the top 20 H-1B users go here.

Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on June 27, 2007 01:30 PM