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New H-1B visas still available
July 12, 2005 -
Another H-1B battle coming?
January 20, 2005 -
Bill adds 20,000 H-1B visas
November 22, 2004 -
H-1B visa limit for 2005 already reached
October 1, 2004
Employers have applied for 49,040 H-1B guest worker visas for next fiscal year, more than 75 percent of the program's annual cap of 65,000, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The tally, made July 31, suggests the limit for the controversial visas could be reached near or on the first day of federal fiscal year 2006, Oct. 1. This fiscal year, employers hit the annual cap as of the first day.
Applications are coming in more slowly for the extra 20,000 H-1B visas reserved annually for foreigners with advanced degrees from U.S. institutions. As of July 28, employers had applied for 10,150 of these visas for this year, according to USCIS. As of July 31, employers had asked for 7,884 of these visas for fiscal year 2006. H-1B visas allow skilled foreigners to work in the United States for up to six years.
See more CNET content tagged:
H-1B, fiscal year, employer, cap, U.S.
http://jmaximus.blogspot.com
People on H1 are paid the same as Americans. They have to be by law.
I am not sure about why u r worried about all these H1-B applicants.If you are good enough you should be able to CLING to your job.
I can see how frustated you must be, because there must be thousands of people who can do your job better than you.Wake up to reality, what goes round comes round.
Cheers
we dont need drones in the company when a perl script can do their job..thats why they are out of a job. they are so worried about keeping their job they dont bother to do their job.
maybe instead of complaining and watching TV you should polish your skills.
So, reality is, H1B workers are economic engines.
Also, the USA is a land of immigrants. So, adopting this 'holier than thou' attitude is shameful. Just ask the Irish in Boston,
How can the software industry WHINE! about not having enough skilled workers, when they can't even bring themselve to hire people with right skills (frankly more than qualified), but the wrong knowledge (common U.S. street-smarts) about what they are worth in the U.S. economy?
But the software Industry has no problem, claiming all the bachelors or greater H-1b slots for next year. Even before they are released. And Why? Because people outside the U.S. don't have an inkling of what the real cost of living is in the U.S.
And, these H-1ber's are far less likely to switch jobs (because they don't have contacts in the U.S. and they possess only a bachelor's degree, and they need a Green Card).
It is clear that it isn't about skill, it's about $$$/hr. And that's it.
If industry could get away with paying people minimum wage to write software, they would (and they do in places like India). And by flooding the U.S. economy with H-1ber's that is exactly what industry is trying to do here.
And you know the prevailing (what H-1ber's are paid) wage is never anywhere near the actual free-market value of most of these worker. It is usually 20-30k less.
The prevailing wage is simply an estimate of the median wage of workers (as estimated by the employer or the employer's cronies), and they always estimate low.
Back when Oracle was hiring h1-b QA people for 48k /year, it was more typical for QA people to be paid 60-100k/year. So the prevailing (H-1B) wage IS B.S., and is not a true measure of anying but the fact that the H-1B program is indentured servitude for the sake of GREEN CARD.
Also, a little FYI for everybody else -- the prevailing wage clause dictates that employees supporting and H1-B visa application must pay that employee at minimum 95% of the prevailing wage. Also, when measuring the prevailing wage, variable pay does not count towards the meeting that requirement, but it does get counted when the prevailing wage is determined by the INS. As such, this often benefits the employees as they may also qualify for a variable pay over and above the prevailing wage which is based on the total wage (both vaialbe and base) of non H1-B workers.
Also, to my knowledge H1-B holding foreign nationals can transfer to another company so long as that company is comfortable taking over the H1-B and meeting the requirements.
- Wannabe resident alien.
The amount offered to an h-1ber was typically 20-30% less than that of a U.S. candidate.
One of these companies is a house hold term. The other is growing rapidly.
For example, a U.S. candidate was offered 95k/year, a similar H-1b candidate was offered 72k/year for the exact same job. And this is but one example, I have many more such examples.
It was not atypical to consider H-1ber's when there was a call by the company's upper management to scale back wages. This was done to save time, as finding a U.S. candidate at the paltry rates being offered was considered to be a waste of time.
And I am not blaming the U.S. candidates. If I had been hired at the rates offered to the H-1ber's, I'd still be in an apartment, I'd still be driving my broken down car.
Living in Silicon Valley is a very expensive proposition.
And if you ask, why didn't I report this?
Well if I did, then I'd risk being black-listed by recruiters, who got me both jobs.
I know, from a person who is very close to me, and worked at the highest level in HR, that such a black-listing can cause a career to end rather abruptly.
So watch out, it's a lot better to part with your employer on good terms, because head-hunters and recruiters have big mouths, and they like to back you against a wall when they negotiate. And if your black-listed, they don't even want to talk to you.
KM
There is one more thing I want to add to the benefit of these idiots. It is China and India who are buying all those expensive aircrafts and mobile phones and what not. These two countries will decide the destiny of our world in 21st century.
If American and European labour do not heed the lesson and change along with times, they will be left far behind. The era of $120,000.00 salary for Java programmer is over and will never return. Those kind of salaries are reserved for managers, scientists, doctors and not for workers who call them selves knowledge workers but are really workers
it will always come down to the golden rule. the h1b program benefits the wealthiest. period. legalized offshoring/outsourcing is another example of the widening of the wealth gap.
show me a muslim worker who's going to buy that $50,000 SUV on a 30-40% salary of the prevailing IT wage.
Short term, self-gain for stock holders, board of directors, ceos.
meanwhile, out of work american IT workers sit back and whine rather than unifying and lobbying and fighting back. the problem is, too many of us are ***** to keep income rolling in. so we passively sit back, train our towel-headed replacements, and then whine as we move into the under-employed labor pool. 5% national unemployment? maybe. maybe because too many of us are now underemployed working at the mall and selling off our houses.
But the software Industry has no problem, claiming all the bachelors or greater H-1b slots for next year. Even before they are released. And Why? Because people outside the U.S. don't have an inkling of what the real cost of living is in the U.S.
And, these H-1ber's are far less likely to switch jobs (because they don't have contacts in the U.S. and they possess only a bachelor's degree, and they need a Green Card).
It is clear that it isn't about skill, it's about $$$/hr. And that's it.
If industry could get away with paying people minimum wage to write software, they would (and they do in places like India). And by flooding the U.S. economy with H-1ber's that is exactly what industry is trying to do here.
And you know the prevailing (what H-1ber's are paid) wage is never anywhere near the actual free-market value of most of these worker. It is usually 20-30k less.
The prevailing wage is simply an estimate of the median wage of workers (as estimated by the employer or the employer's cronies), and they always estimate low.
Back when Oracle was hiring h1-b QA people for 48k /year, it was more typical for QA people to be paid 60-100k/year. So the prevailing (H-1B) wage IS B.S., and is not a true measure of anying but the fact that the H-1B program is indentured servitude for the sake of GREEN CARD.
Davis,
http://www.my-credit-cards.co.uk/
And, a lot of them have more than a Bachelor degree. And they can change jobs very easily. "Not having contacts" in the US is yet another myth. How do you think they got their jobs in the first place?
The prevailing wage is not the same as the competitive wages.
U.S. workers will take a job for a while at low wages, if they have no choice, but then typically leave when they are offered a competitive wage.
In Silicon valley, the prevailing wage can vary from 40-60k in the outer area. To 90-120k in the central portions of the valley. When you average these areas, you get an absurd wage level which can be used to calculate the prevailing wage.
It was typical (at my previous job) for U.S. workers to be paid 90-100k and for H-1Ber's (doing the exact same work) to be paid 60-70k.
Employers want H-1Ber's because they can (practically) name the salary. Employer's prefer this to U.S. workers, who are not afraid to move on, for more money. And U.S. are not afraid to hold out for a larger salary.
U.S. workers (in good times) can negotiate, and this typically raises there starting salary.
I have never met ANY H-1Ber (and I've known and worked with dozens over the years) who quit their job and left for another U.S. company. It simply doesn't happen very often, because any amount in U.S. dollars seems immense to them. And they all want a green card, and won't do anything to jeapardize this process.
I suggest you learn about this before you post BS.
If there are real violation, they should be reported. The form is http://www.dol.gov/esa/forms/whd/WH-4.pdf
DoL investigates, fines violating companies and orders them to pay back wages to the affected employees.
But unless you have reported violations, you are just a whiner.
Another time came when a manager (at my previous company) confided the salaries of several workers to me (actually trying to talk me out of leaving, and keep me happy with my current salary).
And there was one other time when I was in HR (changing benefit plans), and saw the h-1b reqs for several co-workers, by coincidence only. Truly a mistake on the part of the HR person, but hey knowledge is power.
They're probably looking for 100K as a 10+ years of programming experience in C or C++ while employers are now looking for 3-year Java/C# developers.
All the H1-B people I know are very hard and conscientous workers and are interested in the well-being of their sponsoring company. Can't say the same about their US counterparts - they're only interested in making money, and as soon as the going gets tough they pack and leave.
I think you really need to get to know some of these h-1bers. Have dinner (with an H-1b employee) at there house (I have on several occasions), before you can make statements about one being the ideal over the other.
I remember one friend who completely bashed his employer (during a lunch conversation), for paying him 20k less per year than the employees at the company, his company was contracting with. He was very upset, but what could he do? Loose that job, and loose out on 30k in savings over 3 years?
Everyone has hopes and feelings, and just because some americans are brash, doesn't make another group better.
Although I am against the current H-1b program. Let it be known that I am not anti-immigrant. And if there wasn't so much obvious fraud in the H-1b program (especially in the software industry), I could support it to some carefully controlled extent.
I also work with H1b people daily and their work is shoddy - not all of them care!
And of course, there are the exceptions - I do know some Indians who kick ass at their jobs - very good people. There's not enough of them though.
Point is, there are good AND bad no matter where the workers come from....
Then the market crashed, thousands of people were (and still continue to be) out of Tech jobs. There weren't any more excuses. Now they are at it again.. and from the looks of it, seem to be going at it ever more aggresively. When are these politicians that we voted for going to realize that there IS NOT SHORTAGE OF SKILLED LABOR, BUT A SHORTAGE OF CHEAP LABOR! I personally work in the tech industry and it's amazing to see the H-1 B people coming in - MOST of them don't even have the skills, what's even worse, they blatently LIE on their resumes and fake their work experience knowing fully well that US companies cannot effectively check foreign references. Have you heard about how easy it is to get a FAKE B.S in India? There have been countless instances of employers hiring H1-B workers coming into the US with "MBA in Computer Management or B.S in C.S" from agencies only to realize that the college doesn't even exist.
When is our government going to realize that they are stiffling the brain power in this country and putting a strangle hold on the very fabric of American creativity by killing the tech industry and effectively stopping the flow of American students into Computer Science degrees?
Besides, the biggest frauds, Enron and MCI, had nothing to do with H1s...
Please elaborate on that before going into your conspiracy theories!
Only because YOU don't like the H1 program, you can not go around and willy-nilly claim widespread abuse. Even the anti-immigrant groups, who have tried for years, haven't found any widespread abuse. There of course may always be some companies that abuse the H1 program, but that's what laws are for, to punish the occasional abuser.
In particular, the vast majority of H1 employers pay H1 workers the same salary as their American counterparts. If they didn't, the negative PR would outweigh any short-term savings...
If you in fact know about violations, why don;t you report that to DoL? You can do that anonymously as well: http://www.dol.gov/esa/forms/whd/WH-4.pdf
Outsourcing didn't really take flight until the U.S. -- after years of benefiting from the intellectual and financial *contributions* of the cream of non-US crop -- started enforcing the return of these modern-day slaves to their own countries after they were laid off when the Internet bubble burst...
It seemed smart at the time... after all, here we had these 'cheap' people, educated abroad at another taxpayers' expense, the best of their schools, to fill the labor shortage gap during boom times.
We gave them an H1B visa that did (and does) not allow for job hunting or changing employers. Thus beholden to their H1B job sponsors aka slave-masters... we were sure we could get rid of them when things turned sour. As a side benefit, we got ourselves a great mechanism to drive down wages for all!
Yep yep. So smart.
We gave them a visa that did not allow them to become citizens, picked their brains, took their tax contributions to fill our social security coffers *without* allowing them to ever take out what they put in...
Things DID turn sour, a and after years of integrating into American society, where they experienced "true" capitalism, learned about the way things work around here, our dependence on the service industry, our labor costs, inflexibility of the work force, our strengths (i.e. talking smack aka marketing) and weaknesses (i.e. executing and educating)... WHOOPSIE we kicked them out...
Guess what, when they arrived back home they didn't turn stupid.
The program seems more and more to be a push by businesses to hold down labor costs by threatening to replace experienced domestic IT staff with lower-paid offshore talent.
1. Lot of work for the lawyers.
2. Lot of money into USCIS coffers(much of the money goes into retraining US workers).
3. Remember, H1Bs too buy cars, rent apartments, have children and need to send them to school.
4. All that the american society offers need consumers, right otherwise, your portfolios will just melt away.
5. As written in the most recent post, H1Bs contribution to Social security and Medicare is money down the drain as far as the immigrant is concerned.
So, relax, H1B's too are contributing to run the economy and it sounds too "protectionist" when americans write that H1Bs are stealing jobs. Not to forget, the immense sacrifices that a H1B does to disclocate himself from homeland to seek fortunes elsewhere, ISNT THIS HOW AMERICA WAS CONCEIVED BY FORE FATHERS?
All this is convoluted, companies bottom lines are increasing, they are reporting profits, your portfolio is growing better and better every quarter, your nestegg is growing, why should anyone complain?
Yes, it is about money. As with everything in business and life, there are black sheep. Some are taken advantage of (even i was underpaid at one time), I dont regret it nor have anything to complain...I saw it as working on the shop floor, learnt it the hardway and today, every dollar that is being to me is worth the salt...Most of what is written about H1Bs is true here and NONE of them complains and are willing to hang their heads down and work for the sponsoring company until the green card comes through(4-5years)...this is a precedent set by other immigrants.
Moreover look at the business practices of your companies that operate in all parts of the world.
I accept that the so-called skilled workers are not geniuses. But the reason your IT industry is moving at a rapid pace is due to large number of foreign manpower.
And if there are loopholes in the system, they are caused by your 'honorary' statesmen & politician primarily for the purpose of making money through rich donor companies. Don't curse the immigrants for exploiting these loopholes.
Moreover I do not segregate between indians, americans & chinese. For me all are humans & if you cant learn to co-exist, I can only be sorry.
America is a great country, truly a land of dreams. Don't tarnish that image!
There is no reason to bring in more H-1B workers. There never was a shortage of qualified software professionals in the USA, and there certainly is NOT a shortage now. The H-1B is used to drive down wages which turns college students in the USA away from the industry.
The H-1B is damaging the competitiveness of the US tech sector.
All the facts are taken from the following research done at University of California, Davis by Norm Matloff, Ph.D http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/matloff.html
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Summary.html
And the full, 100+ page report:
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Mich.pdf
1)The H-1B visa is used for cheap labor:
# UCLA study; 33% pay gap.16
# Cornell University study; 10.4-29.6% pay gap.17
# UC Davis study; 15-20% pay gap.18
2) H-1Bs are typically de facto indentured servants, thus exploitable:
# Still immobile if sponsored for green card, in spite of 2000 legislation.
# The Immigrants Support Network (www.isn.org) said that the H-1Bs are "...indentured servant[s]...modern day slave[s]."
3)H-1B workers are NOT the "best and the brightest":
# I have always strongly supported bringing in the "geniuses" from around the world. But only a tiny percentage of H-1Bs fit this description.
# 99% of computer-related H-1Bs make less than $79,400 per year, certainly not genius-level pay in a field in which the median salary for all Software Application Engineers in 2001 was $70,210.26
# Of 54 recipients of the ACM System Software Award through 2001 (this is the award most closely associated with innovation in practice), only two have been foreign-born.
# Foreign computer science/engineering doctoral students in the U.S., who often later become H-1Bs, have generally been of ordinary quality, not "geniuses." The foreign students are disproportionately enrolled in the academically weaker universities, and their representation in the ACM Dissertation Awards has been proportionally lower than their enrollment numbers.
# True international recognition, not merely the possession of a doctorate or publications, should be the criterion for "best and brightest." The current National Interest Waiver system works well, though the related O visa might need updating.
# Industry lobbyists often cite a study extolling the entrepreneurial activity of immigrants in Silicon Valley. However, the study does not claim that immigrants are more entrepreneurial than natives, and in fact the study data show that the rate of immigrant entrepreneurship is less than immigrant representation in the tech workforce. Similarly, immigrant-founded companies have generally not made pathbreaking advances in technology.
4)H-1B workers are NOT better educated:
# The industry statement that 40-50% of U.S. doctorates in computer science are awarded to foreign students is accurate but misleading.
# The Ph.D. issue is a red herring in the H-1B debate. Only 1% of computer-related H-1Bs have a doctorate.
# we get a rough estimate that about 7 percent of computer-related H-1Bs have Master?s degrees in computer science from U.S. schools.
But it is obvious that you rather listen to some anti-immigrant than getting informed by real sources, e.g., economists.
are just concerened with their next bonus and the politicians are
just concerened with the next election. So they're busy playing
pocket pool with each other. They're only concerened with how
big a pile of cash they can accumulate in a very short time.
The competiviness of America is all mumbo jumbo.
It's a strange world when the last Democratic President balanced
the budget and the conservative Replublicans are busy doubling
the government and spreading democracy around the world.
Except for America where it's bad for business.
Can't do much about the business guys. But we can sweep the
politicians up for midterm elections out of office. Naturally
whoever replaces them will propably be ethically challenged
also. But we'll have their attention.
What's Globalization done for you lately?!?
2. We're all poor schmucks, only some of us realize why, 2 million jobs disappeared after 2000 what's that vs. stupid H1B 65K.
3. No jingoist red-neck training a "**********" is a significant factor in terms of net job gains/losses for the whole economy.
4. Whole R&D and engineering support departments at local Silicon Valley Fortune 500 tech companies have been off-shored.
5. New jobs are going to foreign divisions or suppliers.
6. Don't read tech mags for labor and economic issues
7. Learn to see the big picture even if it hurts.
Cheers,
That's a 15min. I'll never get back!
(b) businesses import workers on programs like H1-B expecting to get them in at lower wages than domestic workers.
(c) A and B are aggravating the glut of unemployed/underemployed tech workers left over from the dot-bust, many of whom are still dreaming of the glory days of the 90's when they could make buckets of money with little experience. Most of these folks need a loud wake-up call, but some are getting slammed simply for the sake of quarterly earnings reports.
The Fortune 25 company I work at has done both A & B, and cut back noticeably on the in-house development staff. It's certainly been good for the bottom line, but it's left the IT staff looking over their shoulder at 4Q every year waiting to see if they'll still have a job.
Joe Heise, you can say what you like, but this appears to be the reality of the US IT market right now. It was manufacturing in the 80's, it's IT now. Are we setting ourselves up to be a nation of low-end retail workers and project managers to offshore firms? I have to wonder...
Simply allocate the 65,000 visas for those people with Masters
degrees from accredited US universities with preference for
those with both Bachelors and Masters from US colleges.
This would actually retain valuable US educated brain power and
encourage those who have already made a serious investment in
this country.
It would also short circuit most of the anti-immigrant cracker
commentary we see here.
Yowza!
bubble workers are deemed inexperienced. Otherwise
experienced workers don't have the "right skills."
So we're a third world service economy with first world cost
structures. And as long as politicians aren't held accountable by
everybody our structural problems will continue.
Wait hold on I have order a large screen TV with the credit card
check that just came in the mail.
Yowza!
- Fired
- by August 9, 2005 6:15 AM PDT
- If I get fired after reporting it, will you hire me?
- Reply to this comment
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- Whistleblower protections
- by JoeF2 August 9, 2005 7:37 AM PDT
- If you would get fired after reporting violations, you would get rich. That what whistleblower protection is for...
- View reply
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