Sunday, August 21 2005 15:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Several organisations and individuals, including lawmakers, are seeking drastic curbs on issuance of H-1B visas to hire foreign skilled workers even as the industry, government and a large section of the US Congress seem to think otherwise.

The H-1B visa program has no serious safeguards to protect American workers from being replaced and is abused to provide cheap foreign labour, said Tom Tancredo, a Congressman from Colorado.

The H-1B visa limits were set during prosperous economic times but now cannot be justified when so many highly trained Americans remain unemployed, he said referring to the six per cent unemployed in the country.

Congress needs to increase domestic worker safeguards, significantly reduce the number of H-1B visas issued, and crackdown on visa violations and fraud, Tancredo said.

In the next 10 years, the US will be losing 800 IT jobs daily, due to offshore outsourcing, and the federal government's H1-B and L-1 guest worker programs will be decisive in this process, he said.

Leading Indian IT company Wipro told its investors "If US immigration laws change and make it more difficult for us to obtain H-1B and L-1 visas for our employees, our ability to compete for and provide services to clients in the United States could be impaired," news.Com website reported recently.