Indian, US companies seek Obama's intervention on L1 works visa delays

Top Indian and American IT companies has sought the intervention of US President Barack Obama on "unprecedented delays and uncertainty" around L1 work visas, which they argued is badly effecting their business and work, a media report said.

In a letter to Obama, these companies claimed that immigration authorities were exceeding the law in rejecting their applications for L1 visas, which are used for intra-company transfers of employees from foreign offices to US offices, Computerworld has reported.

"Such delays or denials do not enhance compliance or enforcement and do nothing except disrupt carefully-laid business plans and create significant costs to the company and the American economy," the companies told Obama according to Computerworld.

IT majors Wipro Technologies, Tata America International Corp, a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant Technology Solutions and Accenture, eBay, EMC, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard Co, Intel, Microsoft, Texas Instruments and Boeing, Dow Chemical, Caterpillar and Chevron USA had written the letter on Thursday.

The US Chamber of Commerce has also signed the letter.

From 2005 through 2007, the denial rate for L-1B petitions ranged from six to seven percent; in 2008 it rose to 22 percent, and has not sunk below that level since; in 2011 it was at 27 percent, according to Bo Cooper, an immigration attorney at Berry Appleman and Leiden.

The letter said that US immigration authorities have adopted an "inconsistent and improperly narrowed definition" of specialized knowledge.