Noting that Indians have been benefited most from the H-1B and L1 work visas, a senior US official has said there have been some cases of abuse of these visa categories in India. "Our consulates or the embassy in India had become aware of certain abuses of those categories of visas, and they are taking measures to make sure that those abuses do not continue," Janice Jacobs, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs said.
"There's an awful lot of outreach with the business community in India. We have a very good relationship with Nasscom and other business groups there. I even spoke to them when -- during a recent visit to Delhi," Jacobs said.
"Over 50 per cent of the H1-B and L visas that we issue worldwide are issued in India. So those two programs, I think, have really benefited Indian nationals over the years," he said in response to a question.
Jacobs said the US was very interested in strengthening the economic partnership that it has with India.
"I think these visas are part of that. So we don't want people who might try to abuse the system to spoil it for everyone else," he said.
"So we do a lot of presentations and outreach on trying to explain what the procedures are, what the requirements are, just to make sure that everyone is sort of playing by the book, so that we're able to issue visas to qualified applicants," Jacobs said.
