Immigration bill best chance to boost H-1B visas (filling jobs Americans ARE willing to do)

The Business Journal ^ | June 18, 2007 | Kent Hoover Washington Bureau Chief

[BornInASmallTown]

Despite the Senate's failure to act on sweeping immigration legislation, the technology industry still sees comprehensive reform as the best way to get more H-1B visas for foreign engineers and computer programmers, and to reduce the backlog for green cards.

Demand for H-1B visas, which allow highly skilled foreigners to work in the United States for six years, dramatically exceeds supply. The federal government received 150,000 petitions for fiscal 2008's allotment of 65,000 H-1B visas on the first day it accepted applications.

This visa shortage hurts companies like Google Inc., where H-1B visa holders account for 8 percent of its U.S. work force, and helped lead the development of Google News and orkut, Google's social networking site. "Each and every day we find ourselves unable to pursue highly qualified candidates because there are not enough H-1B visas," said Laszlo Bock, vice president of people operations for Mountain View, Calif.-based Google.

The original version of the Senate immigration bill would have raised the annual cap on H-1B visas to 115,000, gradually increasing up to 180,000 a year if needed. But the bill failed to include exemptions, passed by the Senate last year, for foreigners with advanced degrees. An amendment restoring these exemptions, and addressing other alleged flaws in the bill's H-1B visa provisions, was pending when the Senate stopped work on the legislation. The amendment also calls for an employer-sponsored pool of green cards. The original bill would have ended employer sponsorship of individuals for green cards, which enable foreigners to live permanently in the United States.

[null and void]

*snrk*

Right now for me it is a hobby.

An expensive hobby...

[No.6]

Thanks for replying twice. It’s not BS.

I’m very sorry PharmCo, or TechCo, doesn’t wish to pay full price for a worker on a regular visa who ‘might’ choose to go home even though he’s on a track to citizenship. It’s much more secure for the company to have a worker who *must* work for you and cannot leave for another company, whose H1-B visa expires in 6 years and whose chance of getting a better visa is entirely dependent on the company’s good will. I weep for the poor CEOs who import slave labor on one hand and cry about how young Americans aren’t lining up to join the field with the other.

What besides “indentured servant” describes a worker who is bound to his employer for years? I’ve been in the trenches with these guys and seen how their companies treat them, the crazy demands put on them and how their companies shaft them after years of overwork.

I don’t mind filling a labor shortage a bit, but do it with regular visas, not 21st century slaves.

[Tulane]

Wrong. We do not produce enough CHEAP scientists and engineers in non computer fields. And if we import more H1-B visas, the numbers trained will go down. They just don’t want to pay us.

From a highly trained physicist/engineer.
_____________________________________

How long have you been retired? The foreign kids are making a ton of dough, here in the US, as scientists. American kids go to business or law school...it is as simple as that.

[null and void]

You say “indentured servant” like it’s a bad thing...

[No.6]

See my #62. Raise the cap on regular immigration, not H1-Bs.

Regarding ‘prevailing wage’:
“2. Question: How do employers get a prevailing wage if filing an H-1B, H-1B1, or E-3 Labor Condition Application?

Answer: The Immigration and Nationality Act provides that, unlike the other labor certification programs, the employer has the option of using one of three sources: (1) requesting a prevailing wage determination from the appropriate SWA; (2) using a survey conducted by an independent authoritative source; or (3) using another legitimate source of information.

By obtaining the prevailing wage from the appropriate SWA, the employer is given “safe-harbor status,” meaning that if the employer’s wage compliance is investigated for any reason, Wage and Hour Division will not challenge the validity of the prevailing wage as long as it was applied properly (i.e., correct geographic area, occupation, and skill level).”
http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/wages.cfm

Note that this is different from the standard for regular visas - the employer can use any standard whatsoever.

Lastly there’s a difference in fields. Hiring foreign doctors to do pharma work does not follow the same standards that tech companies use when replacing American programmers with 30 code-bangers who can barely spell C.

[TopDog2]

I’m certainly qualified to do desktop support. By not hiring me, a well-qualified US citizen, aren’t you breaking the law if you instead claim you can’t find someone like me that is well-qualified and a US citizen, and apply for an H1b to fill that job?

[null and void]

Advisory Board

* Jagdish Bhagwati
* Cesar Conda
* Guy Vander Jagt
* Richard Vedder
* James W. Ziglar

[avacado]

"Demand for H-1B visas, which allow highly skilled foreigners to work in the United States for six years, dramatically exceeds supply. The federal government received 150,000 petitions for fiscal 2008's allotment of 65,000 H-1B visas on the first day it accepted applications."

LOL!!!!!!!!!!! Nice sentence!

There may be demand for 150,000 per year by foreigners wanting to get to the USA but is there 150,000 openings per year not being filled by Americans?

[Old_Mil]

There are no jobs that Americans are unwilling to do. Only salaries at which they are unwilling to do them. Cut a doctor’s compensation to $90,000 a year, and nobody will go to medical school. Cut an engineer’s compensation to $35,000 a year, and nobody will complete an engineering degree.

[null and void]

Hmm, I probably wouldn’t hire an MBA to do desktop support. You might leave after a few months and I’d have to start my search all over again.

When one has already decided to avoid hiring Americans, all excuses are good excuses.

[Non-Sequitur]

Prakash or Deepti might be able to work 65 hours a week for months at a time where I can’t, and sling code just as well as I can at half the rate, but I can write and communicate better, and that counts for a lot.

They have their uses. I used to work at a place which had a weekly change control meeting approving, usually disapproving, changes scheduled for the weekend. We were in the middle of outsourcing and I had this one IBM India guy on staff who was a wiz at coding but had an accent so thick you could barely understand him. Regardless of whether he had worked on the change or not I always made sure he was on the conference call and when we were questioned about the change I would say, "I'll let the developer address that. Valhallibad, could you field that question please?" He'd prattle away for a minute or two with his incomprehensible Hindi accent and the I'd ask, "Any more questions?" That was always met by dead silence and then "Change approved." Worked every time.

[Non-Sequitur]

My solution has been to find a company that, based on moral principles of its owners, refuses screw someone who has done good work for a long time. For that reason, I can still sling code for a living and not worry about getting outsourced.

Such companies are exceedingly rare. Hang on to it.

[null and void]

Indigenous engineers get $90K+ here. H-1Bs typically are hired at ~ $60K

Americans are overqualified for these jobs. (By $30K)...

Oh, and just as an aside, an American can't get a job for $50K.

It's the same sort of reasoning someone else used today:

Hmm, I probably wouldn’t hire an MBA to do desktop support. You might leave after a few months and I’d have to start my search all over again.

[null and void]

No, you are over-qualified for the job.

Yup.

We know how the game is played.

The job requirements are written so restrictively that all candidates except the target H-1B are either under or over qualified.

[TopDog2]

I don’t think the law says anything about over-qualified. I’m sure that there are many older, laid-off US citizens who would be thrilled to find a job paying $40K. Have you even looked?

[null and void]

So you'd prefer:

"Valhallibad, could you field that question please?" He'd prattle away for a minute or two with his incomprehensible Hindi accent and then I'd ask, "Any more questions?"