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Senate Panel Votes to boost H-1B visa limit by 30,000
ComputerWorld ^ | 10/21/2005

Posted on 10/24/2005 11:55:32 AM PDT by SirLinksalot

Senate panel votes to boost H-1B visa limit by 30,000

The measure would raise the cap by only half as much as backers wanted

by Grant Gross

OCTOBER 21, 2005 (IDG NEWS SERVICE)

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has approved an extra 30,000 foreign-worker visas for 2006 under a visa program popular with many technology companies, but the increase was halved from an earlier committee proposal. The committee yesterday approved legislation that would expand the cap on H-1B skilled-worker visas from 65,000 to 95,000 in the U.S. government's fiscal year 2006. The legislation, supported by several IT vendors, expands the H-1B cap by "recapturing" unused visas from past years going back to the early 1990s.

The extra visas would be available in years when the H-1B cap has been reached, as it has for fiscal 2006.

A Judiciary Committee draft proposal circulated in the past week would have allowed up to 60,000 more H-1B visas a year, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) pushed for a smaller increase. A Feinstein spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment today.

The 65,000 cap for H-1B visa applications in the U.S. government's fiscal 2006 was reached about two months before the new fiscal year began on Oct. 1. Congress allowed 195,000 H-1B visas in the government's fiscal year 2003, but then let the cap fall back to its pre-dot-com boom level of 65,000.

The Judiciary Committee legislation, which would have to be approved by the full Senate as well as the House of Representatives, also includes a $500 increase in the H-1B application cost. The current cost is $3,185.

Technology trade groups, including the Information Technology Association of America and Information Technology Industry Council Inc., had pushed for more H-1B visas, saying U.S. companies need to be able to recruit workers from around the world to compete in a global economy. The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), another trade group, and Microsoft Corp. applauded the committee's support of more visas.

SIIA President Ken Wasch called the need for additional technology workers "urgent" for U.S. companies.

"Despite concerns that the number of additional H-1B visas was cut in half ... SIIA believes that the proposal represents an interim solution for immediate U.S. workforce needs while also providing necessary revenue for the federal government," Wasch said in a statement. "Both of these objectives are consistent with the goal of positioning the U.S. for continued global leadership in innovative technology."

Supporters of more H-1B visas also pointed to benefit for U.S. workers, with $1,500 of each visa application fee going toward U.S. worker training programs. The committee's decision "will give U.S. business more ability to compete, succeed, remain competitive and provide new revenue for training U.S. workers and for deficit reduction," Jack Krumholtz, Microsoft's managing director for federal government affairs, said in a statement.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.-USA (IEEE-USA), representing U.S. IT workers, had opposed an increase in the H-1B cap. IEEE-USA would have preferred no increase, but "30,000 is better than 60,000," said Chris McManes, a spokesman for the organization.

Current law allows for a 20,000-visa exception to the H-1B visa cap for graduate students, and close to 8,000 student H-1B visas remain unused, McManes said. "Industry says it only wants to bring in the 'best and brightest,' yet thousands of the 20,000 extra visas ... are not currently being used," he said. "If they were only seeking the best and brightest, shouldn't these visas fill up first?"

In June, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported job losses in five major engineering and computer job classifications in the first quarter of 2005. Compared with the 2004 average employment, the number of U.S. computer hardware engineers dropped by 18,000 in the first quarter of 2005, a loss of 19% of those jobs from the same period in 2004. The number of employed computer software engineers dropped by 13,000, and the number of computer programmers, electrical and electronics engineers, and computer and information systems managers also dropped in the first quarter, according to government statistics.

Offsetting the loss of 52,000 jobs in those five categories was a gain of 54,000 jobs among computer scientists and systems analysts, according to government statistics.

IEEE-USA argued that the numbers show thousands of unemployed U.S. IT workers. "Part of the reason the additional visas aren't needed is because of the abundance of unemployed U.S. tech workers," McManes said. "That the cap for 2006 has already been reached doesn't show demand, it shows that U.S. companies aren't even looking for Americans first."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: aliens; h1b; immigrantlist; immigration; labor; senate
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To: gubamyster

Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!

Support our Minutemen Patriots!

Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!


41 posted on 10/24/2005 1:42:55 PM PDT by blackie (Be Well~Be Armed~Be Safe~Molon Labe!)
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To: SirLinksalot
I live in the Raleigh/Durham (Research Triangle Park) in N. Carolina. Today I met with an IT recruiter and was told that they have a hard time placing skilled people.

The reason? There is such a glut of job seekers that the companies reject any and all candidates that the recruiter sends them, in hopes that someone just a little more "perfect" will come along next week.

I've been looking for work in the area for four months and still haven't found anything, even though I have great work experience and a solid resume.

42 posted on 10/24/2005 1:43:11 PM PDT by Mini-14
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To: SirLinksalot
Re: U.S. worker training programs.

I don't know of a single person who got a job in these programs.
I DO know of kickbacks, fake companies and slush funds which were setup ONLY to funnel jobs to India and fire American workers.

43 posted on 10/24/2005 1:53:54 PM PDT by Zathras
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To: PeterFinn
When in God's Name will American politicians start acting in the interests of AMERICANS????????

The 5th of Never.

44 posted on 10/24/2005 1:57:39 PM PDT by afnamvet
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To: Mini-14

<<<<
I've been looking for work in the area for four months and still haven't found anything, even though I have great work experience and a solid resume
>>>>>

Hey folks, get a load of the above statement from a techie with a solid resume, in a state that is supposed to have below average unemployment rate.

When the Labor Dept. tells us that unemployment ( pre-Katrina ) has shrunk to a low of 4.9%, I think they are talking about the abundance of lower paying jobs, not high paying jobs ( or whats left of them ) like IT.


45 posted on 10/24/2005 2:00:33 PM PDT by SirLinksalot
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To: vrwc0915
I am currently training my replacement H1B of course,

Ouch, that's gotta bite. I know it's not his/her fault but it would be hard not to accidently misinform this trainee on a thing or two.

46 posted on 10/24/2005 3:58:12 PM PDT by ozarkgirl
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To: SirLinksalot

= "guest worker program."


47 posted on 10/24/2005 4:24:38 PM PDT by BIRDS
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To: SirLinksalot
"computer scientists and systems analysts" = people who provide "Tech Support" on the 800#'s at places like yahoo and DELL and such.

Isn't Microsoft among the loudest driving forces of this insistence for more "computer scientists and systems analysts" from other countries, brought into the U.S. for Microsoft's purposes?

48 posted on 10/24/2005 4:27:19 PM PDT by BIRDS
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To: Mini-14

that's part of the 3 card monty game played by US tech managers. they will quibble and b*tch and moan over minute qualifications on a resume for a person they have to pay full salary for, and then instantly hire an H1B with little (or fradulent) experience because they work cheap. that's part of the problem.


49 posted on 10/24/2005 4:59:58 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: SirLinksalot
Technology trade groups, including the Information Technology Association of America and Information Technology Industry Council Inc., had pushed for more H-1B visas, saying U.S. companies need to be able to recruit workers from around the world to compete in a global economy to continue to depress skilled job pay in the U S to keep CEO million dollar bonuses rolling.

So many Americans have totally lost the concept and pride of being a loyal American.

50 posted on 10/24/2005 9:15:49 PM PDT by TLI (ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA, Minuteman Project AZ Day -1 to Day 8, Texas Minutemen El Paso, 32 Days)
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To: SirLinksalot

How did Hillary vote?


51 posted on 10/24/2005 9:16:57 PM PDT by faithincowboys
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To: faithincowboys

<<<<
How did Hillary vote?
>>>>

I don't think she was on the Senate panel.


52 posted on 10/25/2005 6:55:06 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
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To: Unam Sanctam

> By law, H-1Bs must be paid the prevailing US wage for the job and the region.

This is idiotic. The market solution is to let prices rise.


53 posted on 11/07/2005 11:02:14 AM PST by old-ager
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