Senators Release List Of Top L-1 Visa EmployersSenators Release List Of Top L-1 Visa Employers

Two U.S. senators pushing bipartisan legislation to close loopholes for alleged fraud and abuse of visa programs used to bring foreign tech workers into the United States released a list of the top 20 employers of L-1 workers Tuesday.

L-1 visas are used by multinational companies to transfer foreign workers from their overseas operations to work temporarily in their U.S. operations.

Of the top 20 companies that used L-1 visas in fiscal 2006, nearly half are Indian IT outsourcing firms that also are among the top users of the H-1B visas. H-1B visas are used to employ foreign tech workers in the United States.

Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released the list on Tuesday just after the U.S. Senate voted to revive debate on the comprehensive immigration bill that's been stalled in Congress since earlier this month.

Durbin and Grassley allege that foreign outsourcing companies abuse L-1s by using the visa to train their foreign employees during short stints in the United States to help facilitate the offshoring of work done by Americans. In a release, the senators also said they plan to continue investigating "blanket" L visa petitions that allow companies to transfer "limitless" numbers of workers into the United States.

Here is the list of top 20 L-1 employers in fiscal 2006, according to Durbin and Grassley.

This story was updated June 29 to include IBM's response.