[IEEE-USA Position Statement]

The L-1 Visa for Intracompany Transfers

(Approved by the IEEE-USA
Board of Directors, 13 Nov. 2003)

IEEE-USA supports the legitimate use of the L-1 visa to facilitate intra-company transfers within multinational corporations and allow executives, managers, and employees with special skills to transfer to a U.S.-based office, subsidiary, or affiliated company to perform temporary services. We believe, however, that L-1 related practices intended to reduce labor costs in the United States through displacement of U.S. workers is a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the nation's immigration laws. We are also concerned that increased utilization of L-1 technical workers within the U.S. is contributing significantly to the current high levels of unemployment among U.S. engineers, computer scientists and information technology professionals.

IEEE-USA recommends that Congress examine recent instances in which U.S.-based employers have replaced citizens and legal permanent residents with foreign nationals admitted to the United States on L-1 visas, assess the impact of such practices on employment opportunities for U. S. workers, and advance remedial legislation that will help distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate uses of the L-1 intra-company transfer visa program. IEEE-USA believes that such legislation should:

require that the use of the L-1 visa not result in the displacement of U.S. workers;
require that L-1 visa workers in the U.S. be paid prevailing U.S. wages;
add other appropriate safeguards for U.S. and foreign workers;
establish transparent administrative and enforcement requirements;
provide for timely investigation and adjudication of complaints; and,
authorize additional civil and monetary penalties to deter abuses.

This statement was developed by the IEEE-USA's Career and Workforce Policy Committee, and represents the considered judgment of a group of U.S. IEEE members with expertise in the subject field. IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., created in 1973 to promote the public good while advancing the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 235,000 electrical, electronics, computer and software engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE. For more information, go to http://www.ieeeusa.org.

BACKGROUND

The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 101(a)(15)(L), provides for issuance of L-1 intra-company transfer visas to qualified aliens employed by corporations to work in the United States for seven years in an executive or managerial position or five years in a position requiring specialized knowledge or skills.

In a September 2003 report to Congress, the General Accounting Office noted that "…in recent years, employers have increasingly turned to the L-1 visa, an intra-company transfer visa that can be used by companies to bring their foreign professional workers to the United States on a temporary basis. L-1 visas do not have an annual cap and are not subject to prevailing wage laws." (GAO-03-883)

According to the U.S. Department of State figures cited by the GAO, the number of L-1 visas issued in fiscal year 1998 was 38,307 and rose to 41,739 in fiscal year 1999, peaked in fiscal year 2001 at 59,384, and decreased slightly in fiscal year 2002 to 57,721.

Taking advantage of the opportunities created by the current corporate emphasis on down-sizing and outsourcing of technical work, a number of foreign technical services firms with a U.S. presence are utilizing the L-1 visa to move large numbers of non-U.S. engineers and information technology professionals to the United States as a source of lower-cost contract labor. Several foreign corporations have even established U.S. subsidiaries specifically for that purpose.

As a consequence, U.S. engineers, computer scientists and information technology professionals are being laid-off by their U.S. employers in significant numbers. Some employers have even conditioned payment of severance benefits and termination allowances on the willingness of laid-off professionals to train replacements with L-1 visas. A particularly egregious example of this practice involving use of the L-1 Intra-Company Transfer visa to displace U.S. workers was described in the March 10, 2003 edition of Business Week and in an investigative report produced by WKMG-TV6 in Orlando FL.

The increase in utilization of the L-1 visa and other non-immigrant visas for entry of skilled foreign technology workers is mirrored by record high levels of unemployment among U.S. electrical engineers, computer scientists and other high tech professionals in the United States. Many IEEE U.S. members are concerned that the unemployment problem is exacerbated by the continuing admission of substantial numbers of foreign professionals on temporary visas. Most are justifiably outraged when they learn that some employers are taking advantage of loopholes in the nation's immigration laws to replace citizens and legal permanent residents with lower salaried foreign workers on temporary visas such as the L-1 visa for intra-company transfers.

Last Updated: 17 November 2003
Staff Contact: Vin O'Neill, v.oneill@ieee.org