U.S. to Sharply Cut Number of High-Tech Work Visas

Reuters ^ | September 22, 2003 | Alan Elsner

[AntiGuv]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is about to cut the number of employment visas it offers to highly qualified foreign workers from 195,000 to 65,000, immigration experts said on Monday.

Unless Congress acts by the end of this month -- and there is little sign it will do so -- the change will automatically take effect on Oct. 1. Employers, especially technology companies, argue the move will hurt them and the economy.

The change will affect the number of H1-B visas that can be issued each fiscal year. The visas are mostly used to bring high-tech experts from Asia, especially from the Indian sub-continent, to work in the United States for up to three years.

"The fact that Congress doesn't seem anxious to act reflects the political climate, with a lack of jobs for Americans," said New York immigration lawyer Cyrus Mehta.

"The pressure to change the limit will build up again when the economy picks up."

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the issue last week. Republican chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah noted that many U.S. high-tech workers are unemployed and the committee needed to find ways of helping them without hurting the country's ability to compete globally.

Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said: "Given the weakness of our current economy, and the rising unemployment we have experienced under President Bush's stewardship, many who supported the increase in 2000 now believe that 65,000 visas are sufficient."

But Patrick Duffy, Human Resources Attorney for Intel Corporation, said finding the best-educated engineering talent from around the world was critical to his company's future.

"We expect that we will continue to sponsor H-1B employees in the future for the simple reason that we cannot find enough U.S. workers with the advanced education, skills, and expertise we need," he said.

Elizabeth Dickson, director of immigration services for the Ingersoll-Rand Company, speaking on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said: "In the near-term, we simply must have access to foreign nationals. Many of them have been educated in the United States. By sending them home, we are at best sending them to our own foreign plant sites, and at worst to our competitors."

Immigration attorneys expect the new rules to set off a scramble by companies to fill their slots early before the ceiling is reached. How quickly that happens depends on the state of the economy, they said.

[null and void]

I could be wrong, but as far as I know the company must pay the recipient of the visa on the same scale as American citizens or residents would receive in the same position.

Yeah right. That's why they were able to replace one me with 3 H1-B's on my last job.

[doc30]

Congress should pass a law saying that H1-B's must be paid identically with American citizens of equal skill grades.

Law is already there. U.S. employers must pay the prevailing wage for the profession in question. However, since many people, in the late 90's, saw how lucrative IT work was, more people entered the IT workforce and pushed wages down. The collapse of the tech bubble added to downward pressure on IT wages. The reason IT workers are paid less is that there is a larger pool to choose from. H1B's didn't drive down IT wages, rather IT wages dropped because there is a surplus of IT workers looking for employment. If unemployed American IT workers turns down work because it doesn't pay nearly as much as his last job, then, technically, no American IT workers are available at the prevailing wage and the immigration law is satisfied. Cutting the number of H1B's won't raise wages or increase employment for native workers if the workers will not accept the prevailing wage.

Also, H1Bs are used many other areas like health sciences. Nurses can get an H1B immediately due to a severe shortage in the U.S. Also, academic and non-profit H1Bs have no cap at all.

[HamiltonJay]

Don't get me started on the messes I've had to clean up from development teams out of Dehli et al... I have met some kick ass people from that part of the world... but by and large most of them shouldn't be answering tech support phone calls, let alone architecting and devloping software.

[null and void]

And your solution is?

[TLI]

Employers, especially technology companies, argue the move will hurt them and the economy.

Hurt them? Why yes, they might have to fire some useless lower level managment in order to keep the almighty bottom line. But hurt the economy? Only if having u.S. citizens in decent jobs that will spend their pay localy will "hurt the economy."

Souds like BS to me. and BTW The economy IS getting better, no matter what the dem-doom-dayers are desperatly trying to have everyone believe...

[Orbiting_Rosie's_Head]

We expect that we will continue to sponsor H-1B employees in the future for the simple reason that we cannot find enough U.S. workers with the advanced education, skills, and expertise we need

Lying POS!!!

[trini]

Wait a minute...you ask me for statistics when I clearly was speaking about people I knew. You then claim that the statistics show that it is an infinatesimally small number without providing ANY statistics. Reference those stats which show that small number. Otherwise, don't call for stats. Finally, you go on to speak of the one person that you have known to use the visa in that way. That's all I was doing in the first place, speaking of people that I know. I never claimed to know the statistics or to be an immigration attorney, nor do I play one on FR. My personal experience, that's all.

[Swanks]

There's only one thing of higher value these thieves in Congress value more than lining their pockets with lobbying dollars. And thats keeping their sorry a**es in Congress.

On occassion the two are at odds and this is one of those times. They're all for sending more jobs overseas but this time they know it will cost their own.

[Southack]

"Now the problem will be preventing all of these high-tech companies from putting their work requirements into a zip file and emailing them to foreign countries. Short of exempting email from First Amendment protections, I see no way of preventing this so-called 'outsourcing'."

No way??

Oh please, it's easy. Devalue the currently over-valued U.S. Dollar and all of a sudden offshore outsourcing won't look quite so attractive financially.

A lower U.S. Dollar makes all foreign companies' U.S. contracts and payments for services worth less, and costs U.S. companies more to outsource offshore.

[mpreston]

Actually desktop support and LAN admin can be done from remote sites. In fact this is the latest technology development for both OS and storage support.

Telling companies who they can and cannot hire doesn't solve the problem. The root cause is economic competitiveness in the form or taxes and wages. US wages will come down as a result of competition but foriegn wages must come up to levels that enable American workers to compete. Discussions should be along those lines or further job moves offshore will happen.

[trini]

So what you're saying is that you are underpaid, right ;-)

[trini]

OOPS. Sorry, WERE underpaid ;-)

[Wheee The People]

But Patrick Duffy, Human Resources Attorney for Intel Corporation, said finding the best-educated engineering talent from around the world was critical to his company's future. "We expect that we will continue to sponsor H-1B employees in the future for the simple reason that we cannot find enough U.S. workers with the advanced education, skills, and expertise we need," he said.

Balderdash...High Tech firms, with full cooperation from both political parties, are blowing smoke up the rear of every high tech worker.

[.cnI redruM]

Check today's CNN/Money. Currency devaluation hurts more than just imports. DJIA off 110 points over currency worries from a weak dollar.

[JustAnAmerican]

What's amazing is that these idiots really think we believe that garbage. What they and their free-traitor supporters fail to realise is that Americans and America is starting to wake up, and the backlash to them and their companies won't be pretty.

[Robert DeLong]

You are wrong. Trust me, I know first hand that they are not paid the same amount.

[riri]

The root cause is economic competitiveness in the form or taxes and wages. US wages will come down as a result of competition but foriegn wages must come up to levels that enable American workers to compete

Wouldn't that take decades, if possible?

Optimistic reports I have read say that only 20% of China's population can expect to join the consumer class in the next 20 years. That still leaves hundreds of millions of people willing to work for less than a thousand dollars a year.

[null and void]

H1B recepient's spouse and dependent minor children cannot accept employment

But the spouses and chillins can get their own H1-B's...

[trini]

Okay.

[HamiltonJay]

Well in my experience I have RARELY seen the 6 month rule obeyed, and in fact the only times I have really seen it used was when company wanted to pay FAR below prevailing wage... in fact the guy they brought in worked for less than 60% of what comparable jobs were paying at the time...

The H1B system is a scam, was a scam and always will be a scam. There are rarely times when you cannont find a qualified american for a job, they do happen but it is very very rare, so rare that in reality, there is no need for more than 10-15k H1Bs nationwide EVER.

H1B's are effectively slave labor, there was never a shortage of tech workers in the US, just like there is not a shortage of teachers, or nurses. Skill workers abound in the US... companies just aren't willing to pay the skilled workers rates, and find it easier to import a kid who has no family, no life and they basically can bitchslap around and who will take it with a APUesque thank you come again mentality.

The H1B program was is and always will be a scam, nothing more. If the only person you can find to take a position is an H1B canidate, you aren't paying market rates... believe me.