Conflating H-1Bs and Immigrant Visas

The Economic Times reports on fusing H-1B use with immigration:

BANGALORE: Dismissing the claim made by two US Senators that Indian IT companies were misusing the H-1B visa programmes, the industry body Nasscom on Tuesday said it was being unnecessarily mixed up with the immigration issues. Two US Senators – Charles Grassley and Richard Durbin had charged that H-1B visa programme was being abused by foreign companies to displace qualified American workers. It further said that 9 Indian companies which includes the likes of Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Patni, i-flex and Tech Mahindra, has used these visas to outsource more work from US and in fact sent letters to them seeking further details.

Nasscom said, “We do not see this as an immigration-related issue but one related to international trade and would urge that work permits and intra company transfers should not intermingled and confused with immigration.”

The Senators had sought details for about 20,000 visas from the 9 Indian companies on how they were utilised. Wipro in a statement said, “We have not received a letter from Senators Grassley and Durbin. Nasscom, the nodal industry body has expressed its view and we have no further comments.” Nasscom said that “both US and Indian companies have repeatedly stressed the need to raise the H-1B visa cap which was reduced from 195,000 to 65,000 two years…  Click here for the rest of the story.

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