New York: American immigration officials are examining whether l-1 visa, under which foreign companies can transfer their employees to their branches in the United States is being misused, a media report said.

The issue being assessed is whether companies contracting the employees they bring to US to other companies where they could replace higher paid American jobs constitutes misuse.

Should they decide that it does, thousands of workers, a major per cent from India, could be affected.

The assessment by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) comes close on the heels of a Bill moved in the House of Representatives that seeks to prevent companies from hiring foreigners with l-1 visas.

Getting l-1 visa is much easier than H-1b work permit, under which the companies are expected to pay minimum wages to the employees. In the three years since the technology bubble bust, the 'New York Times' says the companies are increasingly using l-1 visa to bring the workers to the United States.

The number of workers under l-1 had gone up to 57,700 in 2002 from 41,739 in 1999, the paper reports.

Even as legal experts debate the legality of contracting workers, Congressman John Mica, a Republican, who introduced the Bill, told the reporters, "When you have people using this to bring in lower-cost labour to displace Americans, it's something we need to address."

The number of Americans who have been replaced by foreign contract workers is not known, but US companies that use contract workers have said that the decision to hire them is based on factors like skills, and not on cost alone.

PTI