Posted on 04/09/2021 3:10:10 PM PDT by jroehl
The information on this year’s H-1B visa lottery is beginning to trickle in. For the 2021 fiscal year, there were some 275,000 registrations and it is rumored for the latest lottery that there have been more than 300,000. I say “rumored” because USCIS is mum on the numbers. At this time last year, we could at least count on a summary of the results, but nothing has appeared to date.
The record registrations would be a direct result of Trump-era rule changes, wherein they dropped registration fees to $10 and made online registration a breeze. There are also rumors that, although illegal, many applicants submitted multiple registrations. With so little to lose and a pathway to citizenship just a few clicks of a mouse away, is it any wonder why the system gets gamed! The short window of time afforded USCIS bureaucrats to scrutinize each registration on the front end simply fuels more incentive to abuse the system. Will there be consequences for this kind of malfeasance? Given that the results have been shrouded in secrecy – probably not!
For FY 2021, 67.7% of H-1B visa registrants hailed from one country – India! My guess is little would have changed this year other than to increase those numbers.
Employers love the H-1B visa and the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programs, not simply because it affords them a pipeline to college-educated temporary workers, but because the workers can be had on the cheap and are compliant. Things American workers are not.
If an H-1B worker has an issue with the long hours they are being asked to work by their employer, they can’t complain, as the employer could opt to not extend their visa or sponsor them for the coveted Green Card. All and all, it’s a recipe for indentured servitude that was dreamt up by pro-business lobbyists and implemented by a corrupt Congress.
For FY 2021, roughly 40,000 firms sponsored around 275,000 registrations from which H-1B visa lottery winners were selected from. As professors Ron Hira and Daniel Costa pointed out in their recently published article entitled “The H-1B Visa Program Remains the ‘Outsourcing Visa,’” more than half of the top 30 H-1B employers were outsourcing firms.
This is significant because the outsourcing business model employed by these now H-1B visa dependent companies such as Infosys, Tata, Ernst & Young, Cap Gemini fuel the wholesale outsourcing of entire IT departments. The article discusses how:
These companies exploit the H-1B program’s weaknesses to facilitate the transfer of U.S. jobs offshore as a lower-cost alternative to hiring U.S. workers, and sometimes to replace incumbent U.S. workers with H-1B workers who are paid wages that are far below market rates. Over 33,000 new H-1Bs were issued to the top 30 H-1B employers, accounting for nearly 40% of all new H-1Bs in 2020, which are subject to the annual limit of 85,000. Of the top 30 H-1B employers, 17 of them were outsourcing firms. Those 17 firms alone were issued 20,000 H-1B visas, nearly one-quarter of the total annual limit.
We have to continue to push the current administration to reform, if not expunge, the H-1B visa and OPT programs. Short of that, we must see to it that laws are written that will ensure these programs are not used to displace Americans and drive down market wages.
In closing, we will be preparing freedom of information requests to get the FY 2022 lottery data. Given that USCIS has gone dark on the latest OPT data, we will be preparing requests for that as well. The first quarter of 2021 has proven to be a rocky ride and the remainder of the year will no doubt prove more so. So, let’s keep ourselves focused and engaged.
We do NOT need any H1B workers. Any company that hires them should be boycotted. It is shameful that American IT workers and graduates are being so openingly undercut by companies wanting cheap labor.
Agreed...
The Indians have taken over the recruitment of tech workers in the US now. It is nearly impossible for an American to get a tech job now. The Indians just don’t submit you.
How many hot unmarried Eastern European women?
Exactly. And sadly nearly every recruiter that emails me is Indian—Ankush, Gunjan, Sathya, Amandeep, Anjaneet, Sharan, Anil, Guru, Anand, and Spandana this week alone. Okay, did get emails from Ryan and Samantha but wonder if those are their real names as often Indian recruiters Americanize their names.
It is the greatest infraction of American labor law ever. But that is OK, because they are not white men.
All of FR should scan through last year’s top 100 companies.
https://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2020-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx
Not only (H1B) tech jobs, but also many other jobs at all levels have been either sent overseas or filled with non-citizens here on work visa.
Try calling customer service - for a refund for a defective product, or an order that wasn’t delivered, or a credit card question - only to speak with a machine for 10 minutes before being connected to someone in another country you can barely understand and who barely understands you. Then you’re transferred to multiple people, disconnected repeatedly, until finally you find someone who can fix the problem (if you’re lucky).
Not blaming the people who take the jobs. If I were in their shoes, I’d take the jobs, too.
Our politicians are the ones to blame.
I remember back in 1999 when the IT field was young and jobs were plentiful. A guy could go to Microsoft school and within a year or so become competent enough to run a commercial network. Pay rates were excellent and until about 2004 everything was roses.
Then the H1B program began to import cheap IT labor. They usually weren’t very good and required a ton of supervision but once they were trained and had moved up the ladder to management, it was their preference to hire other Indian IT folks — simply because of the culture and family connections. And once a shop became primarily Indian, a native American didn’t have a chance.
The virus eliminated most US recruiters. For the major staffing firms, Excelon & Randstad, the few initial inquires are coming from Indians.
The remaining Dalit recruiters? Largely gone as well. I might hear from these jokers once a week.
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