New U.S. rule: One H-1B petition per foreigner

With another avalanche of petitions for H-1B temporary worker visas expected this year, U.S. immigration officials have adopted a new rule designed to address complaints that some companies are gaming the system.

Apparently, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been receiving duplicate H-1B applications from companies for the same employee. About 500 duplicate applications were received last year, according to an Associated Press report.

The window for next year's H-1B allotments opens April 1. A new rule adopted Wednesday prohibits the practice of filing duplicate applications. Companies caught in violation will see their applications revoked or denied, and USCIS said it will pocket their application filing fees as well.

The goal of the change, USCIS said, is "to promote equal opportunity for prospective petitioners seeking visas for H-1B workers."

When the number of applications surpasses the annual visa cap set by Congress, USCIS opens a "lottery" of sorts, selecting petitions to approve at random from the first few days of filing. Clearly, if an employer is filing more than one application for the same employee, that raises its odds of getting picked in that pool, which is precisely what USCIS wants to avoid.

In recent years, the number of applications for H-1B visas has exceeded the 65,000 cap set by Congress within the first few days that the application window begins. The first 20,000 applications belonging to foreigners with U.S. master's degrees or higher are exempt from that cap, and petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers also don't count against the cap.

There is seemingly a loophole in USCIS's new rule, though: "related" companies--i.e., parent companies and their subsidiaries--are still allowed to submit multiple applications on behalf of the same foreigner for different positions, "based on a legitimate business need," USCIS said.

USCIS also said it also plans to choose from a broader pool of applications if and when the random selection process kicks in. In the past, when the number of applications has exceeded the number of H-1Bs available, USCIS has selected petitions randomly from those filed within the first two days, but starting this year, it plans to select from those filed during the first five days.

It seems questionable whether the changes in the rules will affect criticism of the lottery system, which has been a subject of disdain among H-1B fans and foes alike, particularly since the number of duplicate applications reported last year is so low compared with the overall number of petitions filed.

American technology companies like Microsoft, Google, and Oracle don't like the set-up because they believe they end up unable to hire highly skilled workers to fill gaps in their operations. They would prefer to see Congress double or triple the cap and increase the number of green cards for permanent residents.

Programmer's Guild, a New Jersey-based group that represents American computer programmers and strongly opposes raising the H-1B cap, proposed this week that immigration officials also consider how much companies are committing to pay H-1B applicants and what "national benefit" they would contribute (for example, firms intending to outsource the would-be visa holders need not apply).

[rajje56]

big deal...

if this affects only around 500 applicants out of 120K (could go all the way upto to 150K this year), big deal!!

[Commander_Spock]

The "Proof" Of The "Pudding" Is In Its "Eating"!

That "American technology companies like Microsoft, Google, and Oracle don't like the set-up because they believe they end up unable to hire highly skilled workers to fill gaps in their operations. They would prefer to see Congress double or triple the cap and increase the number of green cards for permanent residents..." How about the "American technology companies like Microsoft, Google, and Oracle forwarding a listing of the vacancies or future vacancies to the U.S. Department of Labor to establish whether or not there are enough U.S Nationals who can adequately fill these positions that H-1B workers are expected to fill. Also, it will be nice to know what current U. S. Department of Labor supported training/re-training programs are underway country-wide to mitigate any worker shortage envisaged.

[BatmanG8]

How much have Apple & M$ invested in US workers

How much have Apple and M$ been investing in each US STEM
worker in each of the last, oh, say, 20 years?
How much of that was for US citizen college new-hires?
How much of that was for retained US citizen employees?
How much was invested in education and training in each US
citizen STEM worker over 40, over 50, over 60? and how much
total for each of those ranges?

In how many major newspapers have they placed their job ads?
In how many of those ads did they include the name of the
hiring manager and/or HR contact, e-mail address and
telephone number?

[Commander_Spock]

Space The Next Frontier!

With "Space" being the next frontier... Just how can the nationals from a particular corner of the world that does not have a space program like that of the U.S. famed NASA adequately fulfill the needs of the U. S. economy. The Microsoft Corporation for some thirty or more years now has yet to come up with a really good Operating System; and, according to hearsay, it was Indian nationals that advised their Government (at the time of the introduction by IBM of OS/2 in India) that the Indian Sub-Continent was not ready for such computer technologies. The question now is: How much things have changed since that time?