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 comp 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. Technology Industry