Comments on: H-1B visas hit roadblock in Congress
Senate panel votes to double guest worker visas next year. Prospects look dimmer in the House.
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I wonder if you really are an employer!!! If you anyone with H1B feels stuck to you, then you have hired a moron who doesn't know how to find a job.
I changed jobs 2 times during the 6 years I had the H1B visa. First time because the first job wasn't gettine me anywhere, and the second time because the company went bankrupt. I've got several friends who did the same thing. Granted it's a lot harder to do than if you're a citizen or a permanent resident, but you're definitely not stuck with the same employer for 3 or 6 years.
H1B transfers, e.g. changing jobs with an existing H1B visa, are not subject to the H1B quotas discussed in this article. H1B renewals (each H1B visa is valid for 3 years) are also not subject to the same quotas.
I wonder if you really are an employer!!! If you anyone with H1B feels stuck to you, then you have hired a moron who doesn't know how to find a job.
I changed jobs 2 times during the 6 years I had the H1B visa. First time because the first job wasn't gettine me anywhere, and the second time because the company went bankrupt. I've got several friends who did the same thing. Granted it's a lot harder to do than if you're a citizen or a permanent resident, but you're definitely not stuck with the same employer for 3 or 6 years.
H1B transfers, e.g. changing jobs with an existing H1B visa, are not subject to the H1B quotas discussed in this article. H1B renewals (each H1B visa is valid for 3 years) are also not subject to the same quotas.
He who has the most "persuasion", ie :cash: gets the best deal. In a low key Oligarky none of us has the time or money to stand up against this obvious and devious manipulation of the senate and congress with big money and personal gains.
When oil cost more and the president is oil oriented in business and close relationships and no one dare mention it in defiance then the whole system is rotten. Get like the French and make noise! I'm sure we are only letting the fox rule the roost. Big money big power huge public losses.
He who has the most "persuasion", ie :cash: gets the best deal. In a low key Oligarky none of us has the time or money to stand up against this obvious and devious manipulation of the senate and congress with big money and personal gains.
When oil cost more and the president is oil oriented in business and close relationships and no one dare mention it in defiance then the whole system is rotten. Get like the French and make noise! I'm sure we are only letting the fox rule the roost. Big money big power huge public losses.
What have you been smoking?
What have you been smoking?
On the H1-B cap, they just need to re-adjust it annualy, because a lot of job is really short term contracts, it come and go depending on the whole economy. So the H1-B cap should be floating too.
On the H1-B cap, they just need to re-adjust it annualy, because a lot of job is really short term contracts, it come and go depending on the whole economy. So the H1-B cap should be floating too.
I've seen (witnessed first-hand) the eagerness of Indian Nationals to return to their home country for the companies they work for here in the U.S.
H-1b is basically a huge, on-the-job training program for the outsourcing market and FUTURE outsourcing activities of companies.
Outsourcing and H-1b go hand-in-hand.
Further, all we are doing when we outsource, import, and BORROW (9-trillion last count), is devalue the U.S. Dollar.
One default by U.S. government is all it will take, and we'll all be living like 3rd worlder's, because we've outsourced everything.
Dude, why can't Republicans see their own folly?
Afraid to be outed as anti-immigrant?
Afraid to be outed as anti-immigrant?
Fact is, people on H1 have to be paid the prevailing wage. Companies that violate that get fined and have to pay back wages owed.
Fact is, the H1 allows changing jobs, so a person on H1 is not tied to one particular company.
Fact is, even with a Greencard application pending, a person on H1 can change jobs.
Yeah but not without adversely impacting the greencard application process. Forgot to mention that, didn't you?
Indian American drafts bill to amend H1-B
Tuesday November 22 2005 14:46 IST
IANS
WASHINGTON: Even as the US Senate has voted to increase the annual quota of H1-B visas for foreign workers, an Indian American who lost her job to outsourcing has drafted a bill that seeks a better deal for employees. (Read More)
The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives Nov 17 by Bill Pascrell (Democrat-New Jersey) and seeks an amendment to the H1-B and L1 visa programmes.
It was drafted by Sona Shah, a data programmer, who is in the throes of filing a class-action suit against Wilco, the company that fired her after she had trained a foreign worker to replace her.
The bill, introduced by the Congressman on Shah's 34th birthday, has grown out of two years of Shah's work with Pascrell and her campaign against both outsourcing as well as the low wages paid to foreign workers who replace Americans like her.
Shah said the battle has been to establish a "class" of workers that are being underpaid, and those that are being displaced. This class action she noted, was different from traditional civil rights cases.
"We are kind of like the first sexual harassment case fought in the country."
According to her, the "class" in the suit is made up of approximately 2,000 people. As there is no federal law in the US under which the cases of both the H-1B visa holders who felt discriminated against and American citizens who lost their jobs to outsourcing could be brought, Shah said she was fighting the case under the New York City Human Rights Law.
Because of how new the law is and because it has no precedent set yet, Shah said lawyers were hard to find. So far, her legal battle has led to defeating a motion to dismiss the case and defeating a summary judgment appeal.
"It's a constant struggle to find the lawyers to make up the right kind of team for this kind of class action," Shah told IANS.
On Monday, at a press conference in Paterson, New Jersey, Pascrell announced federal legislation to reform what he called "the critically flawed H1-B and L1 visa programme."
H1-B visas are for "skilled workers" while L1 visas is for intracompany transferees.
"American workers can't afford for the federal government to remain silent on real worker visa reform," he said.
The text of the bill is yet to be posted in government documents but Shah provided a copy of the bill to IANS.
Shah, who was born in Ahmedabad, came with her parents to the US when she was three. She has a Bachelors degrees in Physics and Mechanical Engineering from New York University and Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey respectively.
But Shah is still looking for work after every successive job she held following her Wilco experience disappeared or went to an H1-B visa holder.
The Bill "To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide greater protections to domestic and foreign workers under the H1-B non-immigrant worker program," was first introduced Nov 17 last year and again on the same date this year.
Shah had testified in the US Congress in 2004 in the middle of a heated national debate on the issue.
The bill's suggested short title "Defend the American Dream Act of 2005", calls for changes in wage levels to foreign workers on H1B that would match prevailing local salaries.
It also requires employers to submit wage declarations to the Internal Revenue Service, extend the time given for termination of services, prohibit outplacement, and requires employers to be transparent in providing information to employees on H1-B employees conditions besides a host of other measures. "
So now I suppose now you will claim that Sona Shah is anti immigrant. We stopped that H-1b increase last year and we will do it again this year. ? stop offshoring
Fact is, people on H1 have to be paid the prevailing wage. Companies that violate that get fined and have to pay back wages owed.
Fact is, the H1 allows changing jobs, so a person on H1 is not tied to one particular company.
Fact is, even with a Greencard application pending, a person on H1 can change jobs.
Yeah but not without adversely impacting the greencard application process. Forgot to mention that, didn't you?
Indian American drafts bill to amend H1-B
Tuesday November 22 2005 14:46 IST
IANS
WASHINGTON: Even as the US Senate has voted to increase the annual quota of H1-B visas for foreign workers, an Indian American who lost her job to outsourcing has drafted a bill that seeks a better deal for employees. (Read More)
The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives Nov 17 by Bill Pascrell (Democrat-New Jersey) and seeks an amendment to the H1-B and L1 visa programmes.
It was drafted by Sona Shah, a data programmer, who is in the throes of filing a class-action suit against Wilco, the company that fired her after she had trained a foreign worker to replace her.
The bill, introduced by the Congressman on Shah's 34th birthday, has grown out of two years of Shah's work with Pascrell and her campaign against both outsourcing as well as the low wages paid to foreign workers who replace Americans like her.
Shah said the battle has been to establish a "class" of workers that are being underpaid, and those that are being displaced. This class action she noted, was different from traditional civil rights cases.
"We are kind of like the first sexual harassment case fought in the country."
According to her, the "class" in the suit is made up of approximately 2,000 people. As there is no federal law in the US under which the cases of both the H-1B visa holders who felt discriminated against and American citizens who lost their jobs to outsourcing could be brought, Shah said she was fighting the case under the New York City Human Rights Law.
Because of how new the law is and because it has no precedent set yet, Shah said lawyers were hard to find. So far, her legal battle has led to defeating a motion to dismiss the case and defeating a summary judgment appeal.
"It's a constant struggle to find the lawyers to make up the right kind of team for this kind of class action," Shah told IANS.
On Monday, at a press conference in Paterson, New Jersey, Pascrell announced federal legislation to reform what he called "the critically flawed H1-B and L1 visa programme."
H1-B visas are for "skilled workers" while L1 visas is for intracompany transferees.
"American workers can't afford for the federal government to remain silent on real worker visa reform," he said.
The text of the bill is yet to be posted in government documents but Shah provided a copy of the bill to IANS.
Shah, who was born in Ahmedabad, came with her parents to the US when she was three. She has a Bachelors degrees in Physics and Mechanical Engineering from New York University and Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey respectively.
But Shah is still looking for work after every successive job she held following her Wilco experience disappeared or went to an H1-B visa holder.
The Bill "To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide greater protections to domestic and foreign workers under the H1-B non-immigrant worker program," was first introduced Nov 17 last year and again on the same date this year.
Shah had testified in the US Congress in 2004 in the middle of a heated national debate on the issue.
The bill's suggested short title "Defend the American Dream Act of 2005", calls for changes in wage levels to foreign workers on H1B that would match prevailing local salaries.
It also requires employers to submit wage declarations to the Internal Revenue Service, extend the time given for termination of services, prohibit outplacement, and requires employers to be transparent in providing information to employees on H1-B employees conditions besides a host of other measures. "
So now I suppose now you will claim that Sona Shah is anti immigrant. We stopped that H-1b increase last year and we will do it again this year. ? stop offshoring
Then they turn around and try to make new laws as a way to get what "They" want! What the hell do they think they are? "Above the Law" ?
We the people will in the end be their judges and hold them responsable for what they are doing and have done to Our Great Country...
One Nation unto God... so help me God.
Then they turn around and try to make new laws as a way to get what "They" want! What the hell do they think they are? "Above the Law" ?
We the people will in the end be their judges and hold them responsable for what they are doing and have done to Our Great Country...
One Nation unto God... so help me God.
Do you care about your career? Do you care about your families future? Help us stop Congress from raising the H-1b limit. Here is a link to a smart web page that will email an all written letter to your Congressional Representatives stating you opposition to the H-1b increase. Last year we stopped the H-1b increase. We can do it again if American workers put enough pressure on Congress. If this plan goes through then hundreds of thousands of Americans will both their jobs and careers. Please tell your friends and coworkers to do the same. The job you save may be your own.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/H1B
Congress Considers a Massive 600,000 H-1b Visa Expansion, Gates Tells Congress It?s Microsoft?s Top Priority
By Marcus Courtney
WashTech News
Congress is contemplating legislation that would allow up to 600,000 skilled professional guest workers to enter the U.S. in a single year. This would be the biggest one time expansion of the controversial H-1b visa program to date.
This increase comes after the high-tech industry is just beginning to recover from the economic recession of 2001, as a small demand for workers has been noticed.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is drafting an immigration reform bill that contains the expansion of the H-1b visa program. Sen. Specter chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over immigration matters.
Microsoft's Bill Gates is spending his own personal political capital on this issue. He was in Washington D.C. last week lobbying for the changes. According to Washington Post columnist David Broder, ?Gates told me the "high-skills immigration issue is by far the number one thing" on the Washington agenda for Microsoft and for the electronics industry generally "This is gigantic for us." The article went on to say, ?So great is the demand for such skills in the burgeoning high-tech world,? However, government studies have dismissed the notion the industry is facing a worker shortage.
Last week, WashTech News released information showing that wages at Microsoft have been stagnant for several years in the majority of pay scales. If a real skill shortage existed, as Mr. Gates claims, pay should be increasing not stagnating at his company.
In an analysis done by the AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees, the bill would:
? Mandate a retroactive increase to 195,000 from the current 65,000 H-1B visa cap (exclusive of existing exemptions) for the years of 2004-2006, in effect allowing for a one-time visa grab by employers of nearly 400,000 visas!
? Increase the 65,000 visa cap to 115,000," a 60% hike!
? Require an automatic 20% annual hike in the new cap whenever the visas are exhausted, thus establishing a new annual cap for each successive year. This, in effect, rips the lid off of any meaningful annual visa limitation.
? Add still another open-ended exemption from the cap for any foreign national that has an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or math from anywhere on the planet. At least the previous exemption authored by the committee restricted such visas to foreign graduates of U.S. institutions and limited it to 20,000 annually.
?Taken together, within one year over 600,000 new foreign professionals could flood the U.S. market, the result of which would be to inflict serious economic harm on highly skilled, well-educated American workers,? said the analysis.
Marcus Courtney is the President of WashTech/CWA Local 37083. He can be reached at courtney@washtech.org
Do you care about your career? Do you care about your families future? Help us stop Congress from raising the H-1b limit. Here is a link to a smart web page that will email an all written letter to your Congressional Representatives stating you opposition to the H-1b increase. Last year we stopped the H-1b increase. We can do it again if American workers put enough pressure on Congress. If this plan goes through then hundreds of thousands of Americans will both their jobs and careers. Please tell your friends and coworkers to do the same. The job you save may be your own.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/H1B
Congress Considers a Massive 600,000 H-1b Visa Expansion, Gates Tells Congress It?s Microsoft?s Top Priority
By Marcus Courtney
WashTech News
Congress is contemplating legislation that would allow up to 600,000 skilled professional guest workers to enter the U.S. in a single year. This would be the biggest one time expansion of the controversial H-1b visa program to date.
This increase comes after the high-tech industry is just beginning to recover from the economic recession of 2001, as a small demand for workers has been noticed.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is drafting an immigration reform bill that contains the expansion of the H-1b visa program. Sen. Specter chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over immigration matters.
Microsoft's Bill Gates is spending his own personal political capital on this issue. He was in Washington D.C. last week lobbying for the changes. According to Washington Post columnist David Broder, ?Gates told me the "high-skills immigration issue is by far the number one thing" on the Washington agenda for Microsoft and for the electronics industry generally "This is gigantic for us." The article went on to say, ?So great is the demand for such skills in the burgeoning high-tech world,? However, government studies have dismissed the notion the industry is facing a worker shortage.
Last week, WashTech News released information showing that wages at Microsoft have been stagnant for several years in the majority of pay scales. If a real skill shortage existed, as Mr. Gates claims, pay should be increasing not stagnating at his company.
In an analysis done by the AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees, the bill would:
? Mandate a retroactive increase to 195,000 from the current 65,000 H-1B visa cap (exclusive of existing exemptions) for the years of 2004-2006, in effect allowing for a one-time visa grab by employers of nearly 400,000 visas!
? Increase the 65,000 visa cap to 115,000," a 60% hike!
? Require an automatic 20% annual hike in the new cap whenever the visas are exhausted, thus establishing a new annual cap for each successive year. This, in effect, rips the lid off of any meaningful annual visa limitation.
? Add still another open-ended exemption from the cap for any foreign national that has an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or math from anywhere on the planet. At least the previous exemption authored by the committee restricted such visas to foreign graduates of U.S. institutions and limited it to 20,000 annually.
?Taken together, within one year over 600,000 new foreign professionals could flood the U.S. market, the result of which would be to inflict serious economic harm on highly skilled, well-educated American workers,? said the analysis.
Marcus Courtney is the President of WashTech/CWA Local 37083. He can be reached at courtney@washtech.org
- Congress plans a 600,000 increase in the number of H-1bs next year!
- by stopoffshoring March 31, 2006 9:11 PM PST
- Do you care about your career? Do you care about your families future? Help us stop Congress from raising the H-1b limit. Here is a link to a smart web page that will email an all written letter to your Congressional Representatives stating you opposition to the H-1b increase. Last year we stopped the H-1b increase. We can do it again if American workers put enough pressure on Congress. If this plan goes through then hundreds of thousands of Americans will both their jobs and careers. Please tell your friends and coworkers to do the same. The job you save may be your own.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
Showing 2 of 5 pages (237 Comments)http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/H1B
Congress Considers a Massive 600,000 H-1b Visa Expansion, Gates Tells Congress It?s Microsoft?s Top Priority
By Marcus Courtney
WashTech News
Congress is contemplating legislation that would allow up to 600,000 skilled professional guest workers to enter the U.S. in a single year. This would be the biggest one time expansion of the controversial H-1b visa program to date.
This increase comes after the high-tech industry is just beginning to recover from the economic recession of 2001, as a small demand for workers has been noticed.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is drafting an immigration reform bill that contains the expansion of the H-1b visa program. Sen. Specter chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over immigration matters.
Microsoft's Bill Gates is spending his own personal political capital on this issue. He was in Washington D.C. last week lobbying for the changes. According to Washington Post columnist David Broder, ?Gates told me the "high-skills immigration issue is by far the number one thing" on the Washington agenda for Microsoft and for the electronics industry generally "This is gigantic for us." The article went on to say, ?So great is the demand for such skills in the burgeoning high-tech world,? However, government studies have dismissed the notion the industry is facing a worker shortage.
Last week, WashTech News released information showing that wages at Microsoft have been stagnant for several years in the majority of pay scales. If a real skill shortage existed, as Mr. Gates claims, pay should be increasing not stagnating at his company.
In an analysis done by the AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees, the bill would:
? Mandate a retroactive increase to 195,000 from the current 65,000 H-1B visa cap (exclusive of existing exemptions) for the years of 2004-2006, in effect allowing for a one-time visa grab by employers of nearly 400,000 visas!
? Increase the 65,000 visa cap to 115,000," a 60% hike!
? Require an automatic 20% annual hike in the new cap whenever the visas are exhausted, thus establishing a new annual cap for each successive year. This, in effect, rips the lid off of any meaningful annual visa limitation.
? Add still another open-ended exemption from the cap for any foreign national that has an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or math from anywhere on the planet. At least the previous exemption authored by the committee restricted such visas to foreign graduates of U.S. institutions and limited it to 20,000 annually.
?Taken together, within one year over 600,000 new foreign professionals could flood the U.S. market, the result of which would be to inflict serious economic harm on highly skilled, well-educated American workers,? said the analysis.
Marcus Courtney is the President of WashTech/CWA Local 37083. He can be reached at courtney@washtech.org