U.S. to Sharply Cut Number of High-Tech Work Visas

Reuters ^ | September 22, 2003 | Alan Elsner

[AntiGuv]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is about to cut the number of employment visas it offers to highly qualified foreign workers from 195,000 to 65,000, immigration experts said on Monday.

Unless Congress acts by the end of this month -- and there is little sign it will do so -- the change will automatically take effect on Oct. 1. Employers, especially technology companies, argue the move will hurt them and the economy.

The change will affect the number of H1-B visas that can be issued each fiscal year. The visas are mostly used to bring high-tech experts from Asia, especially from the Indian sub-continent, to work in the United States for up to three years.

"The fact that Congress doesn't seem anxious to act reflects the political climate, with a lack of jobs for Americans," said New York immigration lawyer Cyrus Mehta.

"The pressure to change the limit will build up again when the economy picks up."

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the issue last week. Republican chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah noted that many U.S. high-tech workers are unemployed and the committee needed to find ways of helping them without hurting the country's ability to compete globally.

Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said: "Given the weakness of our current economy, and the rising unemployment we have experienced under President Bush's stewardship, many who supported the increase in 2000 now believe that 65,000 visas are sufficient."

But Patrick Duffy, Human Resources Attorney for Intel Corporation, said finding the best-educated engineering talent from around the world was critical to his company's future.

"We expect that we will continue to sponsor H-1B employees in the future for the simple reason that we cannot find enough U.S. workers with the advanced education, skills, and expertise we need," he said.

Elizabeth Dickson, director of immigration services for the Ingersoll-Rand Company, speaking on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said: "In the near-term, we simply must have access to foreign nationals. Many of them have been educated in the United States. By sending them home, we are at best sending them to our own foreign plant sites, and at worst to our competitors."

Immigration attorneys expect the new rules to set off a scramble by companies to fill their slots early before the ceiling is reached. How quickly that happens depends on the state of the economy, they said.

[null and void]

401(k) funds are regularly reinvested by the administrators to limit losses and maximize returns, they'll be hit hard, but not wiped out.

The mortgage payment on my home, OTOH will, become a much smaller fraction of my income - assuming I can find a gosh darned job!

[AntiGuv]

Unless Congress acts by the end of this month -- and there is little sign it will do so -- the change will automatically take effect on Oct. 1.

That is an action; a willful decision to prevent an event from coming to pass. Said event being a reduction of the number of employment visas offered to highly tech foreign workers from 195,000 to 65,000. Everyone knows how the government operates, sunset clauses only set if they're wanted to set...

[Southack]

It doesn't matter what I own (which is considerable). What matters are economic facts.

Outsourcing projects offshore is a fad. Like all fads, you are going to have some who adapt it and others who eschew it, and then the fad will eventually fade from popularity.

In this case, the fad of offshore outsourcing does indeed appear to be profitable, on paper, so long as the U.S. Dollar remains wildly over-valued.

But I doubt that the Dollar remains so over-valued when the U.S. is borrowing so much, injecting so much new cash into the global systemm, and running such a high foreign trade deficit.

Now, you can call me names if you want or find clever ways to insult me for being the messenger, but rest assured that none of such antics (if you choose to so engage in them) will have any impact compared to the splash that will be made as companies which have invested in this offshore outsourcing fad will create if the U.S. Dollar doesn't retain its lofty foreign exchange valuations.

Because offshore outsourcing DOESN'T WORK if the U.S. Dollar drops any large amount in foreign exchange value.

That means that investments by big companies in such ventures will turn negative.

So here's your bullet. Go ahead and shoot the messenger for telling you the facts.

[grania]

Short of exempting email from First Amendment protections, I see no way of preventing this so-called 'outsourcing'.

We're going to have to ask people we order things from etc. what country they are in, and if it's not the US, say "nothing personal, but US citizens need jobs" and hang up. We have to have a list of companies that outsource and avoid them whenever possible. We have to start realizing that maybe the country needs strong unions again, since much of corporate America has gone overboard in its anti-worker greed.

[JustPiper]

Now we just have to work on the millions of illegals on our Mexican border, not just hi-tech.

[johnb838]

If we have inflation, Americans will be able to pay off their debts easier. Maybe I'd be able to buy a house someday. I think I might call this a pro-Inflationary Bump!

[johnb838]

I know first hand that they are not paid the same amount.

That's bullcrap too. I mean, it's true they aren't paid as well, but that's because their PIMPS collect the remainder.

[johnb838]

Problem is, the coutries we have the biggest problem with peg their currencies to the American dollar... specifically to keep the trade situation to their benefit. I'm a free trader, but free trade isn't happening b/w us and India/china.

We can BREAK THEM the same way we broke the Soviet Union if the government would ever realize that if we're at war it has to be total war -- economic as well as military. We aren't putting up with any chit from the eurofags, we shouldn't take any guff off a bunch of little brown british wannabees either.

[rmlew]

Yipee!

[John123]

Note: Tired and poor still welcome. Great Benefits.

Even if you enter United States illegally, you can get a driver's license in California!

[AdamSelene235]

. Drop the value of the Dollar and all of a sudden all of those offshore contracts are going to take on an entirely new and unprofitable dimension.

I love you way you make the coming dollar crisis sound like a masterpiece of central economic planning instead of the result of reckless inflationary policies.

[clamper1797]

THANK GOD ... now maybe I can get re-hired in high tech ... been out 6 weeks now

[Zack Nguyen]

"We expect that we will continue to sponsor H-1B employees in the future for the simple reason that we cannot find enough U.S. workers with the advanced education, skills, and expertise we need," he said.

Is this really accurate? Testimony on FR seems to tell a different story. In addition, there are thousands of high-tech workers out of a job. Are Americans less qualified? I doubt it.

[Lazamataz]

Now, you can call me names if you want or find clever ways to insult me for being the messenger, but rest assured that none of such antics

Awkward. Replace with none of these.

I stand ready to proofread again. :o)

[Lazamataz]

Now, you can call me names if you want or find clever ways to insult me for being the messenger, but rest assured that none of such antics

Awkward. Replace with none of these.

I stand ready to proofread again. :o)

[Lazamataz]

I swore I only posted once!

Well, JohnRob can hire me to fix this problem, should he be so inclined. :o)

[WRhine]

Well, it's progress in the right direction. The next step is to kill and bury this Corporate Welfare/American Jobs destroying program.

[Redwood71]

They should. The jobs they were supposed to get went to the illegals.

[Lunatic Fringe]

Actually desktop support and LAN admin can be done from remote sites.

Maybe so, but there are some things that just cannot be done from remote control- hard drives crash, printers die, monitors need to be fixed. Plus, being able to provide such remote support may end up costing more than an on-site tech. You need to provide a high speed connection to the network, long distance phone calls would have to be made... I'm not saying you can't do a lot of administrative work using VNC or SAN, but all in all, I think most IT departments would see exporting admin and desktop support positions as more expensive than hiring a recent CS grad here in America. Regardless, this is still good news, and a step in the right direction...