As expected, next year's H-1B visa limit met
Editor's note: This blog was updated at 1:02 p.m. PDT with comments from the high-tech industry.
As predicted by high-tech companies months ago, U.S. immigration officials said Tuesday that they've received more than enough petitions for next year's batch of H-1B temporary worker visas and would be considering no more of them.
A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman said the agency won't say until later this week exactly how many applications it received since the application window opened on April 1. (The agency characterized the number, not surprisingly, as "high" in a press release.) Per a recent rule, immigration officials plan to select visa recipients by using a computer-generated random selection process to narrow down petitions filed within the first five days.
Last year, the rush on H-1B visas ended one day after it began, and immigration officials used a similar "lottery" system to narrow down those applications. Visa petitioners don't like the lottery system because they say it causes them to lose out on potential hires.
The congressionally mandated cap on H-1B visas currently stands at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 made available for foreigners with advanced degrees from U.S. universities. USCIS said they had received too many applications in both categories. (To obtain an H-1B visa, a foreigner must hold at least a bachelor's degree in his or her area of specialty.)
Technology companies prize the visas because they say foreign hires are needed to fill gaps in their workforces, but some American computer programmers charge that the program has been abused, leading to depressed wages and displacement of qualified Americans.
High-tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Oracle have been agitating for greater numbers of H-1B visas and green cards for permanent residents. Some members of Congress have proposed doubling or even tripling the annual allotment, which peaked at 195,000 just after the dot-com bust. Others, however, have proposed new obligations for U.S. companies designed to address concerns about visa abuse.
Robert Hoffman, an Oracle vice president, said the "artificially low cap" threatens to deprive U.S. companies of international talent.
"Congress has failed to address the problem as U.S. universities graduate highly educated individuals who leave to work in competitor nations," he said in a statement on behalf of the group Compete America, whose members include Cisco Systems, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and other high-tech companies. "This madness must end this year."
speaks fluid Mandarin, actually worked for the Taiwan company his
new job would required close ties with, and an EE Phd and he has
to go to lottery for the visa? Insane. We are so far behind so many
other countries technologically we should be handing out green
cards never mind just visas to all foreign-born technology-related
PhD recipients just to try to catch up.
Alternately there are tens of thousands of under-employed technology engineers who are always looking for a new high paying job. Alas, many multinationals are looking for H-1B workers to fill contracts for a few years at a low (compared to American workers) wage.
The fact is: companies are required to pay the H1B employee the prevailing industry wage based on the locality where he/she is employed (no less than 5% below the prevailing rate). That means that up to 50% (depending on the wage distribution but likely 30-40%) of U.S. employees in the same occupation with comparable experience and within the same area would be earning less than the H1B employee. Plus, the fee for applying for H1B is close to $1,500 (another $1,000 for expedited processing), $2,000-3,000 in legal fees, and the employer is liable for transportation costs upon employment termination (another $1,000-2,000). I'm not sure how one can argue H1B is cheap labor...
http://www.microsoft.com/india/msidc/default.aspx
They have no choice than to go where the people are, since they can't get enough people here. Good going, US Government. Continue harming the US economy by preventing companies from getting qualified workers here...
No, since there are no Americans who are qualified to do these jobs.
"There is no shortage of people who will do the work that are citizens."
There is a shortage of Americans who are qualified to do these jobs. Of course, you can find uneducated, unqualified people. But they can't do these jobs.
If we don't have the people here, the software would have to get created outside the US. With the people here, the tax base stays in the US, so it actually helps the US economy.
http://mcpmag.com/columns/article.asp?EditorialsID=1974
http://blogs.computerworld.com/node/6482
Green cards are being issued to people without even trying to find a U.S. citizen. I have seen this first hand, where Green cards were issued to people in Software Quality assurance (jobs a game tester could do). But if you don't believe me, see the video by the immigration attorneys used by the client of "Compete America":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
A report from the National Accounting Office of the United Stated has found that people on h-1b Visas are regularly being paid 20% less than their U.S. Citizen counterparts.
The h-1b program is being used to out-source U.S. jobs:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/12/business/visa.php?page=2
There is no shortage of qualified technology worker, just a shortage of technology workers are the low-low prices.
With rent in Silicon Valley at typically at 2000$/mth how can a Technology worker live on less than 40k a year, yet many h-1b visas are issued for far less than this.
http://www.bendweekly.com/Opinion/4670.html
Check out the following:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2007/db20070208_553356.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17048048/
The typical U.S. citizen is being saddled with 9 trillion dollars in National debt, by the Bush Administration.
Typical U.S. citizen is born with more cost in debt service per year than the wages of your typical Indian programmer.
Gasoline is prices are going the roof. Because of Corporate lobbying groups. Hey I am spending more driving to work, now, than the average Indian worker.
And the lobbying group "Compete America" is crass euphemism (double-speak) for the continuing fire sale that is destroying the U.S. economy.
http://mcpmag.com/columns/article.asp?EditorialsID=1974
- Don't believe corporate hype because there is NO tech worker shortage
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by Jake Leone
April 10, 2008 7:25 AM PDT
- I am a development manager, in the Silicon Valley.
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- Most of the H1's I have heard about
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by The_Decider
April 10, 2008 8:12 PM PDT
- Are far above your typical IT McJob requiring Java or C++ knowlege. They don't come here to perform run of the mill programming duties.
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(22 Comments)In the last 6 months I ran 2 java/C++ developer job adds, each recieved in excess of 20 resumes, many candidates were qualified. I had my pick, and in the end the only factor was would they come in at the right (AKA lowest) price.
There is always tremendous pressure, when your a manager, to keep salaries as low as possible, especially.
Further, companies like Microsoft, Google reject 99% of resumes that come in. I have been very successful in development (been at my current job for 8+ years), and I have applied to both companies, (for non-Senior programming jobs), and I haven't heard from either company. At the same time, several people who knew someone on the inside of these companies were interviewed and hired.
Don't believe corporate hype, period. There is no tech-worker shortage, there is in fact a glut of tech workers out there.
If you believe that there is a tech worker shortage, then you probably also believe that oil companies aren't making a killing off the U.S. economy right now.
Why am I writing this?
* Although I manage a development group, I am also a technology worker.
* U.S. Tech workers are skilled, experienced, and efficient. I want business to be efficient, so let's not fool ourselves into thinking that cheap labor equals efficiency.
That kind of programming work is far above a MCSE and other such nonsense, but is miles below the PH.d/Masters level jobs that many H1B's fill.
Many of the H1B's are doing truly high tech work.