Lizzy...When were these L1 visas set up and who sponsored them?
It looks like they were set up in 1970.
L-1 visas have been used in relative obscurity since 1970. But during the past two years, an increasing number of the visas are going to workers from a single country: India. Thirty-three percent of the 32,416 L-1 visas issued so far in 2003 went to Indians, up from 20 percent in 2001.
At Wipro and Infosys, L-1 visa use rose considerably during the same time. Wipro, for example, had 624 H-1B employees in 2000 but only 289 L-1 workers. Since then, its L-1 count has soared to 1,157, while the number of H-1B employees has increased to 705
sfgate.com
So Wipro, one of many Indian-based consulting companies, has 1,157 "executives" <wink wink> who are located here in the US, paid in offshore bank accounts in Rupies, and whose sole function is to "consult" to companies like Bank of America on how to transfer labor offshore.
This article was issued in May and the US issued 32.5K L1 visas, so double that for the entire year and that doesn't include other visa programs, or visa holders from previous periods.
What does the US taxpayer get for this exactly? Orrin Hatch seems to think this kind of thing is necessary. |
