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        Is the honeymoon period over for Indian techies in the USA? This question is being asked in the wake of the two US Senators asking nine top Indian IT firms (i-Flex, Infosys, L&T, Mphasis, Patni, Satyam, TCS, Tech Mahindra and Wipro) to come up with all the specifics of their workforce to see how they have been using the H1B visa program.

        The two Senators, one Democrat and one Republican - as if representing the opposite side of the US political spectrum - are of the opinion that the H1B Visa,
-actually a kind of work permit for workers from elsewhere to work in the USA was being abused and misused to displace qualified American workers. Interestingly, the Senators have spoken on a day when a senior official of the US Consulate said in Chennai that there was an increase in the number of cases of Indian workers presenting bogus certificates and documents to get a US visa. He also said that such crimes would be dealt with very seriously.

        The US Congress is now sitting on a big immigration reform legislation. In that sense, the letter from the two Senators could have been more ill-timed from Indian techies' point of view. The burden of their allegation is that too many H1B visas are being used to facilitate outsourcing of American jobs to other countries. They feel that the average annual salary of foreign workers is significantly lower than that of new US graduates. This, the Senators say, has put the US workers at the receiving end.

        The Senators have also charged that a number of firms have laid off American workers while continuing to employ H1B Visa holders. Apart the Senators, the common consensus is that some companies are indeed killing the market and undercutting American wage. The H1B visa was supposed to find talent which is unavailable in local market. But that is displacing the American worker.

        The missive from the Senators coincides with the mood that is usually jingoistic in election year. Naturally, it is now tempting to ask whether the game is over for Indian companies setting shop in the US? Or at any rate, will their profitability suffer a major setback owing to the curbs planned? Analysts, however, feel that the US Senators are playing to the gallery and the programmers guild, which they claim is a small fish compared to the tech sharks like Microsoft, IBM and Intel, the companies that have benefitted from the visa programme.

        But the Indian government and companies cannot expect these corporates to fight their battle. So they better get down to impress on potential presidential candidates to not make outsourcing a major issue. If it becomes then the career and life of over 65,000 people whose H1B visas have been cleared for this year will be in jeopardy. India is awaiting a response from the United States about its proposal to approve 130,000 more H1B visas, increasing the total to 195,000. In other words, India has to get its act together. And fast, at that.