Posted on 10/08/2004 6:35:00 AM PDT by watchout
India's tickets to US sold out NEW DELHI - First day, first show, all tickets sold out. We are not referring to a highly anticipated Bollywood movie release here, but H1-B visas, which provide for the temporary passage of skilled Indian (mainly software) workers to the United States. A full year's quota of 65,000 H1-B visas, slashed from the earlier cap of 195,000 due to protests by American workers in an election year, has been reached on the very first day the new allocations opened, with no signs of respite in the near future. Indeed, media comment here has centered around Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry's use of the word "outsourcing" as a pejorative to describe Washington's handling of Afghanistan through Pakistan, during the first television debate with President George W Bush.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which processes applications for the H-1B program, is no longer accepting petitions for visas for initial employment for this fiscal year, which runs from October 1, 2004, to September 30, 2005. This is the first time the cap has been reached on the same day the new quota opened. According to reports, USCIS had received petitions amounting to 71% of the annual cap by August 18 this year and the remainder were received in the weeks since then. Based on applications already received, the State Department will issue the H1-B visas throughout the coming fiscal. This means that fresh applicants will have to wait for the 2006 quota.
Reacting to the early filling of the quota, India's National Association of Software and Service Companies - or NASSCOM, India's top association for software firms - has said start-up software firms will be affected in a major way due to the filling up of the annual limit for the controversial guest worker program through the H1-B visas.
However, NASSCOM expects any new administration in the US to ease the H1-B visa norms, allowing more information technology (IT) professionals to fly to the US, NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik said in a statement. "At the macro-level, I don't see this having a major impact on the industry. However, new and start-up IT firms certainly will face a problem," Karnik said, adding that he "expects some form of relaxation in the norms by Jan-Feb 2005 after the new administration takes over in the US". "The US industry also recognizes the need to have more professionals to service their industry," Karnik said, adding that the slashing of H1-B visas was "too huge and unrealistic".
A Times of India report datelined Washington says that news of the first-day filling of the H1-B quota has "stunned" the tech industry. "At this point of time, the economy is showing an upsurge and there is a shortage of tech workers in certain areas. The cap should be raised to at least 90,000," said Andy Iyengar, chief executive officer of Sysfour Solutions, a New Jersey-based IT services company. Iyengar warned that the reduced cap would simply result in the flight of more jobs from the US. But he did not foresee any change in US policy in the next few weeks given the election season and the controversy surrounding labor issues. However, he warned that there is an acute shortage of tech workers in several new high-tech areas, as evident in job notices on sites such as monster.com.
The Times report says that news that the cap has been filled is particularly dismaying to students who have just graduated and are hoping to get H1-B visas via employment offers following their training period. Many businesses and corporations are seeking an exemption from the annual cap for foreign students graduating from US schools with masters and doctorate degrees, but domestic labor groups oppose the proposal and are in no mood to relent, even if there is a mismatch between skills and US needs.
Observers here view the limit on H-1B visas as likely to affect Indian software firms, which have a large number of clients in the US, though it would bring more offshore work to India from the US. The restriction will curtail the flexibility to reinforce onsite teams at various stages in the software development lifecycle (system requirement study, testing and implementation phases) if adequate and proactive planning is not in place, says a statement by Satyam Computers, a company with large US clients.
However, it is felt that big companies such as Wipro, Infosys, HCL and Tata Consultancy Services have already built robust H1-B visa banks, with a shelf life of six years, in anticipation of a shortage; it is the smaller IT firms that will really have to grapple hard for new business while servicing current clients. Wipro Technologies, for instance, already has 1,000 visa-ready professionals based in India waiting for their onsite assignments in addition to about 2,000 employees who are already in the US. Infosys is estimated to have close to 7,000 H1B visas, of which only about half are currently utilized, and it has also applied for about 4,000 fresh visas in the current year. According to Laxman Badiga, chief executive (talent transformation) of Wipro Technologies, "We knew about the problem since October and today we have quite a number of visas. Each H1-B visa is valid for six years. Additionally, the availability of L-1 visas [used for intra-company transfers] can mitigate a situation like this."
But the overwhelming view is that the limit on H1-B visas will drive back more offshore work to India, without affecting overall business. "The offshore component has grown for most of the IT companies in 2003-04," said Badiga, adding that the lowered visa cap would facilitate "transfer of knowledge" as people from the client-side would spend more time here training people at the offshore delivery centers.
According to Anu Sharma, vice president of human resources at iGATE Global Solutions, the restriction on the H1-B visas would drive more clients to get work done offshore. This, in turn, would lower costs. "With many companies operating on the global delivery model, this means more business. iGATE recruits local talent in all geographies, which reduces visa-related risks for its business," she said.
Indeed, the US-India visa story has been mixed in the past few years, especially post-September 11, 2001. While the number of students heading to the US indicates a perceptible drop, non-immigration visas issued for tourist and business purposes continue to rise at a fast rate. Most, however, expect a revamp of the current regime once the new government is in place in the US. That won't be too long even as there seems to be a realization in the US that anti-outsourcing attitudes won't work. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently vetoed offshoring bills, while independent research indicates that if the US labor shortfall is not met, the US economy will lose $2 trillion by 2010.
How about "the earlier cap of 195,000 had been temporarily raised from 65,000 during the dot com boom"?
What do you mean? The hoarding of visas by large Indian corporations, or something else?
Wipro Technologies, for instance, already has 1,000 visa-ready professionals based in India waiting for their onsite assignments
They passed out to many of these visas.
The restriction will curtail the flexibility to reinforce onsite teams at various stages in the software development lifecycle (system requirement study, testing and implementation phases)
I guess it doesn't occur to them to hire American "onsite teams".
LMAO
How about previous to 1990, there was no cap?
Gosh, I know at least 9 software engineers with up-to-date skills that can't find jobs in IT. Unfortunately they are all at least 40 years old. Think these companies will give them a chance ? Think these companies pay more than $15 an hour ?
There is a shortage at the price they want to pay. The problem is that the demand is all here and the cheap supply is coming from overseas.
BUMP
[($$ "saved" by outsourcing work)] - [("millions per day" in lost production) x (days lost due to correcting errors in outsourced work) + (cost of U.S. engineers fixing the errors)] = ACTUAL savings(or loss)
I do enjoy the "reverse outsourcing" by Nissan with their plant in Mississippi....
ping
And probably the wrong ethnicity as well. Here in the Silicon Slum it's well known that blatant discrimination against Americans takes place at such hallowed companies as Intel and AMD. Once you get an Indian or Asian or whatever (as long as they aren't the hated Caucasians) in a hiring spot, forget it. It's all over. He's going to hire his buddies.
But never call it discrimination.
How about dropping the H1-B and the wonderful "Diversity Lottery" altogether?
You know, whites have been regularly discriminated against by Western governments for several decades now. I can't imagine them standing for it much longer, and the consequences may well be a banding together with white supremacist groups; who knows, in a few years, whites may conclude that that's the only way they can survive and/or retain some of their property.
Western elites have imposed dangerous experiments upon their peoples. The price to pay may be higher than we can bear.
An excellent book on this subject is Michael Savage's "The Enemy Within".
Both parties are out to lunch on the immigration issue; Iraq and Islamofascism's war against the West dominate the current political debate.
But never call it discrimination.
It happened at Capital One as well.
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