Despite an over 50 per cent drop in the number of H1-B visas issued to some Indian IT firms in 2007 against 2006, US Democrat senators Richard J Durbin and Charles E Grassley have written to nine Indian companies that figure among the top 25 recipients of approved H-1B visa petitions in 2007 seeking detailed information on how they use the visa programme.

 The letters, which come ahead of the US elections in November, are part of an effort to determine if the H-1B programme is being used for its intended purpose to fill a temporary worker shortage.

The senators had written a letter on similar lines last May too.

The Indian IT firms are Infosys Technologies, Wipro [Get Quote], Satyam Computer Services [Get Quote], Cognizant Tech Solutions, Tata Consultancy Services [Get Quote] (TCS), Patni Computer Systems [Get Quote], Larsen & Toubro Infotech, i-Flex Solutions and Mphasis.

These firms accounted for nearly 20,000 of the available 65,000 H-1B visas in 2007. Other prominent firms include Microsoft, Intel, Accenture, Cisco, Deloitte & Touche, J P Morgan Chase, and Motorola.

Most Indian IT firms faced an over 50 per cent drop in the number of visas they received over 2006.

Infosys [Get Quote] received 4,559 visas in 2007 (4,908 visas in 2006), Wipro received 2,567 visas (down from 4,002 in 2006), Satyam 1,396 (2,880), TCS 797 (3,046), Patni 477 (1,391) and i-Flex (now Oracle Financial Services) 374 (815).

Data available for 2005-06 reveal that Infosys and Wipro were the top two contenders for H1-B visas, with 22,600 and 19,400 applications respectively. Among the US-based companies, Deloitte & Touche and Accenture rank seventh and ninth with 8,000 and 7,000 applications respectively.

"The H-1B programme can't be allowed to become a job-killer in America. We need to ensure that firms are not misusing these visas, causing American workers to be unfairly deprived of good high-skill jobs here at home," said Durbin.

"The bottomline is that there are highly-skilled American workers being left behind, searching for jobs that are being filled by H-1B visa holders," said Grassley, adding: "It's time to close the loopholes that have allowed this to happen and enact real reform."

Durbin was elected by his fellow Democratic senators in December 2006 to the post of Assistant Majority Leader, also known as Majority Whip.

Som Mittal, President of IT industry body NASSCOM, said companies had received such inquiries in the past and would respond "appropriately" this time too.

"These questions are not particularly targeted at Indian companies but have been sent to US companies as well. We hope that the US government considers the companies' demands and increases the number of H-1B visas. The US is facing a shortage of technical staff, for which these visas should be increased," he added.

Durbin and Grassley repeatedly raised concerns that the loopholes in the H-1B and L-1 visa programmes are encouraging the outsourcing of American jobs.

Last year, they introduced the H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, which would require H-1B applicants to make a "good-faith" effort to hire American workers first and would give the Department of Labor greater oversight authority in investigating possible fraud and abuse.