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Outsourcing Firms Grab Visas

Foreign companies use 30% of H1B visas to train workers in US

By J. Kelman,  Newser User

Posted May 15, 2007 11:51 AM CDT

(Newser) – H1B visas—intended to bring high-skilled foreign workers to the U.S.—may in fact helping foreign companies to train their workers, two senators argue. Data released by Republicans Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley indicate that nine Indian outsourcing firms use up 30% of the H1B visas granted each year, more than experts had realized previously.

The companies, Durbin and Grassley say, use the visas to bring in foreign workers for short-term training, then send them back home. Now they want to see changes to the way the program works—specifically, requiring that companies try to hire American workers before they look for workers abroad—adding yet another complication to the already crowded debate over immigration reform.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks at the Iowa State Republican Party Convention in Des Moines, Iowa in this June 17, 2006, file photo. With Congress always looking for new ways to boost tax receipts and protect individual investors, it's natural for hedge fund managers to worry that they have a...
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, speaks at the Iowa State Republican Party Convention in Des Moines, Iowa in this June 17, 2006, file photo. With Congress always looking for new ways to boost tax receipts...   (Associated Press)
Chairman of Wipro Technology, Azim Premji, announces Wipro's...
Chairman of Wipro Technology, Azim Premji, announces Wipro's...   (Getty Images (by Event))
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., holds up a printed page from the Food and Drug Administration's website and asserts it is confusing during a Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies hearing on contaminated pet food Thursday, April 12, 2007 on Capitol Hill...
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., holds up a printed page from the Food and Drug Administration's website and asserts it is confusing during a Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural...   (Associated Press)
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