Washington: Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services are among nine Indian firms, which have been asked to disclose details of their workforce by two top U.S. lawmakers, who feel that foreign companies are abusing the H-1B visa programme to displace qualified American workers.

As the U.S. Senate gets ready to take up the comprehensive immigration reform legislation, 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."

In a statement, Mr. Grassley said: "As we move closer to the 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 who are using H-1B visas and how they are using them."

Mr. Durbin said: "Supporters claim the goal of the H-1B programme is to help the American economy by allowing companies to hire needed foreign workers. The reality is that too many H-1B visas are being used to facilitate the outsourcing of American jobs to other countries."

The two Senators have written to the firms to determine if the programme is being used for its intended purpose, which is to fill worker shortage for a temporary period.

The 9 firms

They have sent letters to Patni Computer Systems, I-Flex Solutions Inc., Satyam Computer, Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd., Tech Mahindra Americas Inc. and Mphasis Corp, besides Infosys, Wipro and TCS.

"We have to look at the system that generates these visas and the way they are used. This legislation will help protect American workers first by stopping H-1Bs from being exploited and used as outsourcing visas," Mr. Durbin said.

Just a trade tool: Nasscom

In New Delhi, India's IT industry body Nasscom said it saw the H-1B visa issue not as one related to immigration, but as something concerned with international trade.

It said, "Work permits and intra-company transfers should not be inter-mingled and confused with immigration. Work permits are primarily a tool for facilitating trade and allow global companies to bring key staff to the U.S. on temporary assignments..."

Mr. Grassley and Mr. Durbin recently introduced legislation, which will overhaul the H-1B and L-1 visa programmes to give priority to American workers and crack down on unscrupulous employers who deprive qualified Americans of high skill jobs.

The H-1B visa programme, launched in 1990, allows foreign scientists, engineers and technologists to be employed in the U.S. for up to six years, at the end of which they must obtain permanent residency or return home.

Information being asked of the companies is on the number of visas they hold, wages, efforts to recruit qualified American workers, outsourcing of jobs to other countries and whether any U.S. workers have had their responsibilities outsourced.

While some members of Congress have focussed on increasing the annual cap on the H-1B programme, "we believe it is important to understand how H-1B visas are being used by companies," the senators said in the letter. — PTI

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