Members of India?s information technology industry this week rebutted charges that Indian companies have abused a U.S. guest worker visa program while working on projects for their American clients. They were responding to a hearing before the U.S. Congress that focused on concerns that the L-1 visa program is fraught with fraud and abuse.
A number of Indian IT companies use both L-1 and H-1B visa programs to deploy their staff for work at U.S. customer sites. Infosys Technologies maintained that it was complying with visa statutes and regulations "in letter and in spirit" regarding both the types of employees who can participate and the pay scales involved. Another major Indian IT company, Wipro, also denied mistreating visa programs. ?We believe that we are in total compliance with the requirements of the laws relating to visas,? said a Wipro spokeswoman in Bangalore.