| THE DISMAL STATE OF THE U.S. IT LABOR MARKET. According to recent studies, almost 1 million U.S. IT jobs have been lost during 2001 and 2002. |
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| THE L-1 VISA LOOPHOLE. Against the backdrop of a devastating employment environment for U.S. IT workers and the U.S. based IT services companies that place many of them, offshore companies are bringing in thousands of lower wage IT workers using a loophole in U.S. immigration law. The L-1 visa (intracompany transfer) program was intended to permit multinational companies to transfer foreign nationals who were company executives or managers or employees with specialized knowledge of the company's products and operations. It was never intended to allow offshore companies to bring in lower wage IT workers (often as supplemental staff at client sites) by circumventing Congressionally mandated safeguards and rules imposed under the H-1B program. |
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| CIRCUMVENTING H-1B REQUIREMENTS. As you can see from the chart below, by using an L-1 visa, offshore companies can bring in lower wage foreign IT workers by circumventing Congressionally mandated H-1B visa requirements. |
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| REQUIREMENTS |
H-1B VISA |
L-1B VISA |
| Subject to Annual Cap on the Number of Visas |
Yes |
No. Unlimited. |
| Must Pay Prevailing Wage |
Yes |
No |
| Must Pay $1,000 Fee to Support Education and Training of U.S. Workers in IT |
Yes |
No |
| Must First Attempt to Recruit U.S. Worker |
Yes, if H-1B dependent. |
No |
| Must Certify Have Not and Will Not Layoff U.S. Worker |
Yes, if H-1B dependent. |
No |
| Transparency: Key Information is Publicly Available |
Yes, must maintain public access file and post key information |
No |
| Available to Firms with Only a U.S. Presence |
Yes |
No |
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| Additionally, because offshore firms typically bring in a large number of workers, they can use blanket L-1 visas. Under a blanket visa, the admittance process is expedited and consular review of individuals seeking admission is cursory. |
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| CONGRESS SHOULD CLOSE THE L-1 VISA LOOPHOLE AND LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD. Offshore companies are using L-1 visas to circumvent the safeguards, restrictions and fees associated with H-1B visas. Of course, by their nature, L-1 visas are only available to companies with an offshore presence (because the worker must have been previously employed by the petitioning company overseas) giving those companies an unfair advantage over companies who only have a presence in the United States. Congress should level the playing field for U.S. companies and U.S. workers and close the L-1 visa loophole. |
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