H-1B visas drop but don't break out the champagne

Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 1:34 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Bob Cohen, a spokesman at the Information Technology Association of
America (ITAA), said the decline in H-1B visas being issued somehow
proves that the market "is self-regulating -- that companies are using
the program in the way that it was intended to be used." He claims that
the economic hard times has had an impact on employer use of H-1B
visas.

Cohen is right about one thing, the economy is influencing who
companies hire - they continue to hire H-1Bs to replace American
workers. Corporate bean counters use the economy as an excuse to fire
American workers while at the same time they continue to hire the cheap
young blood of H-1B laborers.

Let's take a look at how the H-1B program is really being used by doing
some basic math:

Visas issued for 2002

215,000 exempts from Cap

79,100 H-1B visas issued to date
18,000 pending H-1B applications

312,000 Total Visas Issued

The ITAA soft peddles the 215,000 exempts but don't be fooled by their
smoke and mirrors - the exempt visas are issued to individuals who are
taking jobs in the U.S. There are two types of exempt visas, but in
both cases H-1B visas are issued for work in the U.S. You can bet that
most media headlines will use the 79,000 number instead of the true
number so to remind people the total is repeated at:
http://www.zazona.com/shameh1b/

Exempt type #1:
H-1Bs that applied for an extension of their visa so they can continue
to work in the U.S. These extensions can be either for 3 years or they
can apply for 1 year extensions indefinitely if they claim that they
have a Green Card application pending.

Exempt type #2:
In the year 2000 exemptions to the cap were given to: institutions of
higher education or a related or affiliated nonprofit entities,
nonprofit research organizations, governmental research organizations,
and for physicians formerly holding "J-1" status in the U.S. Since
universities and schools are some of the biggest users of H-1Bs this
number is a significant portion of the total visas.

Note: The INS refuses to break down the numbers of each exempt type so
all that can be viewed is the lump sum of the two.

Even if we decided to accept ITAA's spin on H-1B and ignored exempts,
the impact on the technical work force is monumental. According to
LeEarl Bryant, former IEEE president, said in December 2002 that,
"About 80,0000 engineers were unemployed a few months ago. If you take
out the H-1Bs who came in, you'd have jobs for all of them"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1226/p02s01-usec.html

George F. McClure, who chairs the IEEE's Career and Workforce Policy
Committee, said that H-1B visa holders are "are all competing for the
same small pot of jobs, and we don't think that is a good thing." It's
definitely not a good thing when 312,000 jobs were given to H-1B visa
holders when Americans are losing their health insurance and
unemployment payments, and it's absurd to label this corporate behavior
as reasonable.

http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/story/0,10801,77949,00.html

H-1B visa awards drop in '02

By PATRICK THIBODEAU
JANUARY 28, 2003

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. issued 79,100 H-1B visas last fiscal year, a
sharp decline from the previous year and far short of the 195,000 cap
or limit set by Congress, likely reflecting the state of the economy,
Computerworld has learned.
By contrast, in fiscal 2001, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service issued 163,600 visas.

There were 18,000 pending H-1B applications in the fiscal year that
ended Sept. 30, which will count against this fiscal year, an INS
official said.

The H-1B visa is used to bring skilled workers into the U.S., many of
whom are IT workers. The visa is good for up to six years, although it
has to be renewed after three years.

Not counted against the cap are extensions of the visa and visas issued
that are exempt from the cap, including those for people employed by
educational and nonprofit research institutions. Those numbers also
fell.

In fiscal 2002, the INS issued 215,000 extensions or initial visas to
people working for exempt organizations. It doesn't provide a breakdown
between extensions and initial visas. In 2001, 342,000 visas in this
category were issued.

The INS will be able to issue 195,000 new visas this fiscal year, but
the cap is set to decline to 65,000 in fiscal 2004. Congress is
expected to see pressure to increase the cap limit from technology
groups, but there's a growing and organized grass-roots movement among
unemployed IT workers against any increase.

One organization that that has been critical of the H-1B program is the
IEEE-USA, a unit of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical
Engineers Inc.

According to latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, there are
94,000 unemployed computer scientists -- an unemployment rate of 5.1%
in that field, according to George F. McClure, who chairs the IEEE's
Career and Workforce Policy Committee. H-1B visa holders are "are all
competing for the same small pot of jobs, and we don't think that is a
good thing," he said.

But Bob Cohen, a spokesman for the Information Technology Association
of America, said the decline in H-1B visas being issued shows that the
market "is self-regulating -- that companies are using the program in a
the way that it was intended to be used." The economic hit taken by IT
firms has had an impact on employer use of H-1B visas, he added.

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