Posted on 02/04/2009 10:16:22 AM PST by spintreebob
When you are here in the USA as an H1B visa holder, your company sponsors you, and you live your life. When your company goes into layoff mode, and H1B visa holders are suddenly without employment and sponsorship, life can quickly turn into a nightmare, with people often being sent back home immediately unless they can get new employment.
BAE law group in Seattle is offering a number of free seminars for H1B visa holders that I hope they broadcast on the internet. This is not an issue that is confined to Seattle only, and in my understanding of this law group, they really do know this stuff. They state:
The Bae Law Group (www.baelawgroup.com) will be providing free presentations to foreign workers who have been laid off or are concerned about their status due to the current economic climate. Immigrants are essential to the economic recovery of the United States as they provide essential skills in all sectors of our economy. Unlike US citizens and permanent residents, employment termination requires most foreign nationals to immediately leave the US. This includes their children who have never known a home outside the United States. We at The Bae Law Group feel a personal commitment to this silent minority whose dilemma has been overshadowed by the dire global economic meltdown. Source: BAE
If you find yourself in Seattle and want to sign up for this, this is going to be at the very least interesting. Again though, given the nature of the economic meltdown, and its near universal applicability across the economic infrastructure, this is an issue that goes well beyond Seattle. I will also try to attend this (if they do not podcast/video cast this one, and I really hope that they do a video conference) if I can (although I don’t want to take someone’s seat either), and see what they are saying.
When people are suddenly cut off from employment, and it does not matter whom they are, there is a large sense of dislocation. When you are a foreign national under the H1B program, this can be even more stressful because not only do you have to go back home, but you have been essentially cut off from your culture. Your kids are more Americanized, and there are going to be enormous problems with going back to the home country. Not that being laid off is easy for anyone, there are additional issues to consider with the H1B visa crowd.
I really applaud BAE Legal for doing this. This is something that we do not think about, but like all layoffs there is always more than one story. What happens with H1B visa people influences what happens to us all.
If there are any other legal groups that are offering similar advice in localities other than Seattle, let me know and we will add it to this blog entry as well.
Let the free market decide, not the lawyers, courts and bureaucrats is my position. But more facts and less emotion about what is actually happening would be an improvement.
In the economic climate we have right now, why do we even *have* H1-B Visa holders taking up American jobs?
>> Let the free market decide, not the lawyers, courts and bureaucrats is my position.
Didn’t the free market already decide, when it laid off the H1B Visa holders?
America trained most of these H1-B’s in American universities, imbibing in the foreigners the skills not found elsewhere in the world.
Now when this talent, which is worth far, far more than the fees the foreigners paid to obtain it, is sent abroad...
Send them back ... all of them back ... from whence they came
“Immigrants are essential to the economic recovery of the United States as they provide essential skills in all sectors of our economy.”
Because there aren’t any unemployed Americans with any actual skills....
There is a lot of abuse in the H 1-B Visa program. But I know first hand there are some American jobs where there are not enough skilled American workers. Some Phd level jobs can’t be filled by Americans at any price, there is more demand than there are people with that particular skill set. In a lot of cases, the work doesn’t get done or R and D comes to a grinding halt if you don’t hire foreign workers.
My Canadian GF instead opted for the Permanent Residency process rather than the H1B because of the horror stories she heard from her fellow nurses. H1B is just a short-fix solution for comapnies but these workers should’ve thought about the long-term repercussions as well. She has a degree in nursing and is certified in med tech as well. It was a good decision even though she had to wait 4 long years for the US govt to process her paperwork and she did it legally..instead of jumping over the border like a certain demographic we know of.
H1B workers Drive down Salaries of Americans especially in Information Technology. Their Sponsors pay them half of what Americans make and keep the other half of the Contract rate for the Sponsor(s).
Result is all Consulting firms in Info Tech prefer to recruit H1Bs NOT Americans.
I know . . . I have Trained H1B people (on the job) and I could have just as easily trained Americans.
H1B workers have no Civil rights or legal recourse like Immigrants.
SEE YA . . .
My husband will be laid off in April...no one offered to help him-an American citizen...send them home now.
I don’t believe it. H1B visas is a ruse...I have seen an entire department of Sprint fired and H1B Indian workers replace them...globalist liars.
I will be gone from my job (contract with mandatory 100 day break) in March. But the H1B’s here will continue.
“Didn’t the free market already decide, when it laid off the H1B Visa holders?”
Perfect question. I don’t think most of the visa holders are terribly concerned, since we have over 4 million visa overstays roaming this country with no idea who or where they are.
For the most part you are correct. In my entire career, I have only run across 2 cases where I considered them to be legitimate. These were positions where a doctorate level was required, and the pool of qualified applicants was very small. Americans could do the job, we simply could not find one qualified at any salary. The system needs to be overhauled, because you are correct, a lot of the time H1-B is just an excuse to get foreign workers cheaper. Same thing with bringing in hispanics to work jobs “Americans wont do”. The companies make the profit from paying a low wage, and the taxpayers are on the hook for the services that the immigrants (both legal and illegal) require. I am all for a company making a buck, but I shouldn’t be expected to subsidize your employees. JMHO
I agree and there used to be programs for getting the PHD’s like the ones you describe into the country...better ones than H1B visa program.
This makes me so angry...when did the government decide we are the enemy...business decided this too.
What are the options available to a foreigner with an American PhD or MS degree, to work in the US, other than through the H1-B program?
I have no idea, but they should explore such options. Go home.
This would work, provided America banned foreign students in American colleges.
Otherwise, America is just training up its future enemies.
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