Bangalore: Foreign IT workers can now breathe a sigh of relief as the U.S. immigration rules for L-1B visas are being reviewed and changes are expected at the earliest which will make the task of getting U.S. employment visas easy and hassle free, says Grassley a high-ranking senator in U.S.

"It has come to our attention that you are planning to issue new guidance on the L-1B visa 'specialized knowledge' standard in the near future. We write today to urge you not to propose changes that would undermine the L visa program," wrote Grassley and Durbin in a letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Alejandro Mayorkas, reports Information Week.

L-1B, which is a sub-classification of L visa program, permits companies to transfer their workers from a foreign office to a U.S. based one on the basis of certain criteria. The employees should have "specialized knowledge," which is well described by the current immigration rules as "beyond the ordinary and not commonplace" about the company for which they are working.

According to Grassley and Durbin, USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) will come up with new rules that will lessen the definition of "specialized knowledge" and make it eligible for foreign workers with similar knowledge to other workers in the industry to get visas.

"A comparison to the knowledge held by workers in the company's industry generally would be unacceptable and would only undermine the specialized knowledge standard established by Congress," the Senators said.

Many of the offshore outsourcing companies misuse the immigration policies to transfer their workers to offices in U.S even under the current rules, argue the critics of L-1B program. Moreover there are many prominent software companies like Microsoft who feels these policies are important as it brings key personnel into the country.

The plan of USCIS to modify L-1B policy on specialized knowledge was brought to the attention of the Senators recently, says one of the staffs of Grassley.

"We learned about it through other people, we have a document," said Beth Levine, Grassley's press secretary. "These special interests have been putting forward proposals to director Mayorkas and Senator Grassley wanted to be sure that Congress' intent was heard and not just these special interest groups."

"USCIS is currently reviewing its L-1B policy guidance, which is comprised of a series of memoranda dating back to 1994, to assess whether that guidance assists adjudicators in applying the law in new business settings that companies face today," says a spokesperson of USCIS.