stampede for H-1B visas
stampede for H-1B visas
Date: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 3:51 AM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1667 -- 4/03/2007 >>>>>
The drum beating for more H-1B visas is getting louder as the corporate
propaganda machines accelerate the lobbying campaign to allow more foreign
workers into the U.S. Most of the articles below show a total lack of
objectivity. Sometimes the reporter will throw in two or three sentences
from somebody with an opposing view in order to give readers the false
impression that journalism is taking place. Don't be fooled!
All of these articles contain variations on these three themes:
1) Shortage Shouting for Workers -- Various claims are made that there are
shortages of high-tech workers, fashion models, nurses, and just about
every other type of professional you can imagine. Often there are dire
predictions that there will be even bigger shortages in the future. In
other words, the shortage of workers is permanent, and so is the need for
unlimited H-1B visas.
2) Shortage Shouting for Visas -- Many of the articles describe the
stampede as employers rush to get visas before the yearly cap for 2008
reaches its limit. The fact that employers are using every last visa is
used as proof that there are shortages of visas; which can only be remedied
by allowing the yearly cap on H-1B visas to be raised. According to the
shortage shouters the diplomas of foreign students should have green cards
stapled to them so they can permanently displace U.S. workers.
3) Education Button -- Typically someone makes a claim that not enough
American students are majoring in computer science and/or engineering. The
alleged shortage of American students is used as proof that there is a
shortage of young Americans that want high paying geek jobs. Sometimes they
trot out experts that say we need to do a better job of educating young
Americans, which of course is used as proof that we have a shortage of good
students. All of these are cicular arguments but reporters buy them hook
line and sinker.
The cause of the corporate stampede for visas is the deadline imposed by
the USCIS. All applications for H-1B visas must be in by April Fool's day.
I know that may sound like a cruel joke, but it's not!
The agency that oversees the visa program, the U.S. Citizen and
Immigration Service, told the public March 27 that applications
received earlier than April 2 would be, by default, rejected,
This paragraph from article #6 might surprise some of you. If you are
confused about why some visas are exempted from the yearly cap, please go
to the following link:
http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/H1BFAQs.htm#AreH-1BsExempted
But those opposed to lifting the H1-B cap say the present program
gives employers all the tools they need to absorb the highly
skilled foreign graduates that tech officials talk about, and
complain -- with justification -- that the so-called cap of
65,000 is a fiction.
According to the report [from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services], the United States approved
103,584 H1-B visas in fiscal year 2002;
105,314 H-1B visas in fiscal year 2003;
130,497 H-1B visas in fiscal year 2004; and
116,927 H-1B visas in fiscal year in 2005.
John Miano couldn't have put it any better than this:
"It sure looks like they're issuing a hell of a lot more visas
than they ought to be," said John Miano, an attorney and H1-B
critic from New Jersey.
Several of the reporters featured below contacted me for comments and
information. I spent a considerable amount of time doing research for them
and yet I didn't a single mention in any of the articles.
Considering what was written perhaps it's best they didn't give me credit.
I wouldn't want my name associated with some of the falsehoods and
misleading statements in these articles.
Case in point: I spent quite a lot of time proving to Joe Napsha that H-1B
visas are used for a wide variety of job categories. No credit given to me
but I appreciate that he at least presented facts that are not generally
known by the public.
Pittsburgh-area employers have looked to the H-1B visa program to
hire computer programmers, engineers, scientists, college
professors, physicians, foreign language teachers and even soccer
coaches, according to applications filed with the U.S. Department
of Labor's Office of Foreign Certification for fiscal year 2006.
The visas permit foreigners to work for six years, or 10 years for
those working on a Defense Department project.
Article 1:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/43644.html
US wants to open doors wider to Indian students
Article 2:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_499897.html
Region's firms scramble for worker visas
Article 3:
http://www.globalservicesmedia.com/sections/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198000356
IBM Looks Beyond India to Vietnam and China
Faced with rising salaries and a talent squeeze in India, IBM is searching
out new frontiers in its campaign to deliver tech services from countries
that are geographically closer to many of its international customers and
where skilled workers earn significantly less than their U.S. counterparts.
Article 4:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/ci_5550015
Tech worker visa scramble begins
Business leaders have said America lacks the homegrown talent to drive its
knowledge industries, often because not enough natives are interested in
the jobs. And they said the nation's immigration policies are driving
foreign talent -- often trained at major American universities -- back
overseas, where it is becoming easier for them to work and start
businesses. There's a shortage of U.S. workers in architecture and
engineering. So all of the firms are trying to grab them up quickly," said
Debra Fiori, director of human resources for RTKL Associates, a
Baltimore-based architecture firm and a client of Kim, the San Francisco
immigration attorney.
Article 5:
http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_5564770?nclick_check=1
H-1B visa race to start
Tech companies have been scrambling for months to finish government forms
and beat what may be their most intense postmark pressure of the year. It's
not the April 17 tax deadline, but the April 2 start of the window to apply
for coveted - and contentious - H-1B worker visas.
Article 6:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/01/BUG1VOUJTG1.DTL
Tech firms scramble for visas
While most Americans are relaxing today, hiring managers at Microsoft,
Oracle, Intel and other high-tech companies will be mailing applications to
U.S. immigration officials seeking permission to hire temporary foreign
employees under a controversial work permit called an H1-B visa.
Article 7:
http://www.dailyherald.com/search/searchstory.asp?id=296942
Special visas bring stampede
On the eve of a key immigration date to apply for visas, pent-up demand
could erupt this week involving foreign professionals hoping to work here
and suburban employers who want to hire them. Federal immigration officials
expect an avalanche of requests Monday, the first opportunity for
businesses to apply for professional, highly skilled worker visas.
Article 8:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2110118,00.asp
H-1B Scramble Hits Fever Pitch
The yearly rough and tumble for H-1B temporary workers' visas is in full
swing this weekend, as the first day of the filing season is Monday, April
2. The year's allotment of 65,000 slots is anticipated to be exhausted in
record time.
Article 9:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9015098
Land rush for H-1B visas expected Monday
The U.S. govern begin accepting H-1B applications Monday, and immigration
attorneys believe that there will be a big rush of applications filed early
next week -- so many, in fact, that the federally mandated visa cap could
be reached in a day or two.
Article 10:
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_5537306?source=email&nclick_check=1
Tech group says U.S. loses ground to rivals
By Constance Loizos
The United States' position of leadership in science and technology is
steadily being eroded by a series of missteps, a Washington-based high-tech
industry group warns in a report being released today. Among its
suggestions: lowering barriers for high-skilled individuals to receive
temporary work visas and giving green cards to all U.S.-educated students
with master's and doctorate degrees. It also laments "waning commitments"
to research and development by the government and the low math and
proficiency scores of kindergarten through 12th-grade American students as
reasons why the United States is falling behind - and why it needs to act
quickly to reverse the trend.
1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/43644.html
US wants to open doors wider to Indian students
Posted on : 2007-03-24 | Author : Arun Kumar
News Category : Education
Washington, March 24 The US wants to open its doors even wider to students
from India for the benefit of the next generation of Indians and Americans,
a US official said ahead of a trip to India.
US and India are 'engaging more actively and constructively than ever on a
wide range of issues', US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and
Public Affairs Karen Hughes said Friday describing her March 26-29 trip to
India as one meant 'to strengthen our collaboration'.
'America wants to open its doors even wider to students from India, and we
want more American young people to travel to India to study and learn,'
Hughes said, as 'our educational partnership is critical'.
'India is already Number 1 in the world in sending students to the US for
higher education and we want to build on this strength for the benefit of
the next generation of Indians and Americans,' she said.
'Students recognise that global challenges demand global solutions, and
international higher education needs to respond to this knowledge
imperative,' Hughes said.
Students want access to universities, she said. 'They want global skills
from these institutions, and look for freedom of mobility to enable them to
move from one institution to another, and one nation to another,
collaborating across disciplines, faculties and borders.
'The global knowledge society knows no boundaries. Now it remains for
governments and higher educational institutions - working in partnership
with the private sector - to match their students' ambitions,' she added.
Hughes said Indian and American parents alike want their children to be
well prepared for the challenges in a changing world. Not only do they
'believe education is key to building a better life', they 'are urging
educational institutions to expand the scope of affordable education
options, broadening our students' opportunities to succeed'.
Exchange programmes such as Fulbright Fellowships bring foreign students to
US universities and allow American scholars to study abroad. Leading US
universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
conduct ongoing collaborative research and educational projects with Indian
institutions.
US educational institutions, from community colleges to universities, seek
to attract foreign students, but after the terrorist attacks on Sep 11,
2001, security concerns made student visa applications more cumbersome.
This is changing, according to Hughes, with the total number of student and
exchange visas issued by the Department of State reaching an all-time high
of 591,050 during fiscal year 2006.
'Student visa issuance in India was up by 32 percent over last year.
Secretary (Condoleeza) Rice is committed to a transparent and efficient
visa process and the Department of State has taken many steps to streamline
those processes.'
2. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_499897.html
Region's firms scramble for worker visas
By Joe Napsha
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Rahul Pamecha came from India to work in the U.S. information technology
industry for some of the same reasons immigrants came from Europe more than
a century ago to toil in Pittsburgh's mills and mines.
"I came to the United States for a better future and learn more about how
to improve my skills. It's been very good," said Pamecha, 30, of Greentree,
about his experience as a computer programmer for RIZ Global Technologies
LLC, an IT consulting firm in Etna.
Pamecha, who is from the northern Indian city of Bhilwara, is one of
thousands of foreigners working in the region under the federal H-1B visa
program, which permits employers to hire highly-skilled foreigners for
specialty occupations. The government considers jobs requiring a college
degree as a specialty occupation.
Companies like Pamecha's employer can begin submitting petitions to the
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Monday, for a new round of
65,000 visas that become available on Oct. 1. Supporters of the program,
such as Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, say that's not enough visas to
meet demand. Opponents say companies use the program to pay lower wages and
displace American workers.
To Pamecha's boss, Syed I. Ahmed, chief executive of RIZ Global, the H-1B
visa program is necessary for his company to compete globally against
companies offering IT services worldwide. About 20 of his company's 35
employees are working with H-1B visas, and he plans to add 15 more this
year.
Pittsburgh-area employers have looked to the H-1B visa program to hire
computer programmers, engineers, scientists, college professors,
physicians, foreign language teachers and even soccer coaches, according to
applications filed with the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Foreign
Certification for fiscal year 2006. The visas permit foreigners to work for
six years, or 10 years for those working on a Defense Department project.
Among the local employers tapping into the global talent pool are U.S.
Steel Corp., PPG Industries Inc., H.J. Heinz Co., and Alcoa Inc, as well as
information technology firms such as iGate Global Solutions. The region's
universities and major hospitals rely upon H-1B visas. Even an
international union like the United Steelworkers in Pittsburgh has workers
under the program.
"The supply of visas don't come close to approaching the demand. ... The
caps that are in place are just ridiculous," said Robert Whitehill, an
immigration law attorney at Fox Rothschild's Pittsburgh office. "There's
not enough U.S. workers ready, willing and able to fill the positions."
Last year, the allotment of H-1B visa applications was exhausted in May,
while the allotment for workers with more advanced degrees, closed in July,
Whitehill added.
But, Kim Berry of Sacramento, president of the Programmers' Guild, a
"virtual" organization representing U.S. programmers, believes there are a
sufficient number of U.S. computer programmers with the skills needed.
Companies are going overseas to find less expensive labor. Seven of the 10
biggest users of the visas are staffing agencies, "that provide no value,"
Berry said. "They're hurting the profession."
That's not how the program is viewed at iGate Global Solutions Ltd., a
Robinson-based IT consulting firm that has global operations.
"It's important, as a certain portion of work in our business needs to
happen at the client site, for which our global employees need work
permits," said Mohan Sekhar, chief delivery officer at iGate.
The harsh reality of the global economy is that if IT companies in the U.S.
can not provide the skills sought by the nation's businesses, those
companies will take that work elsewhere, Ahmed said. That often means going
overseas.
"They will move out your project if you don't have the experience (clients)
need," Ahemd said. The H-1B visas keep good jobs in the U.S., which means
the workers are spending money here and paying taxes, he said.
"When they (visa opponents) realize it, it will be too late," Ahmed said.
Several years ago Congress allowed 195,000 H-1B visas to be issued, but
Congress reacted to complaints about a flood of foreign labor in the
marketplace by setting a limit of 65,000 under a 2004 law.
"The number of visas available under the scheme is far less than the number
we need, given the (quantity) of work that needs to be executed at our
client sites," iGate's Sekhar said.
Ahmed, 31, said his small six-year-old business in Etna is competing for
visas, and talent, with computer giants such as Microsoft. He worries that
small businesses will be squeezed out in the battle for some of the coveted
65,000 visas.
One reason for the gap between the supply of IT workers from the U.S. and
the demand for those skills is that fewer U.S. students are pursuing that
career. Information technology is not as attractive to U.S. students as it
once was, said Randal E. Bryant, dean of Carnegie Mellon University's
computer science school.
Students saw the dot-com boom go bust and were scared away from information
technology, even though it is taking off again. "U.S. students see
opportunities in pursuing medical school and law school" instead of the
degrees in IT, Bryant said.
Far more applications for graduate school in computer science come from
overseas than the U.S., Bryant said.
"People are coming out of the top universities in India and China, and to
study at a top U.S. university, is a dream of a lifetime," Bryant said. One
they get their degrees, they want to be part of the IT industry here.
"Statistics show overwhelmingly that these immigrants are a major driving
force behind the U.S. technology economy," Bryant said.
Joe Napsha can be reached at jnapsha@tribweb.com or (412)-320-7993.
3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.globalservicesmedia.com/sections/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198000356
March 13, 2007
IBM Looks Beyond India to Vietnam and China
IBM also is enlisting industry partners in its globalization campaign and
said Monday that it would work with Cisco Systems to provide a range of
internationally consistent infrastructure support offerings
by Paul McDougall Courtesy of InformationWeek
Faced with rising salaries and a talent squeeze in India, IBM is searching
out new frontiers in its campaign to deliver tech services from countries
that are geographically closer to many of its international customers and
where skilled workers earn significantly less than their U.S. counterparts.
With that in mind, IBM on Monday announced plans to open new computer
services centers in Vietnam and China.
The Vietnamese facility, IBMs first in that country, will be located at
the National University in Ho Chi Minh City and offer a range of services
to customers in French-speaking areas such as France, Belgium, and parts of
Africa.
IBMs new Chinese center will be located in the high-tech zone of Chengdu
and will support customers in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Japan. It
will be IBMs fourth application maintenance and development facility in
China.
An IBM spokesman declined to say how many employees would be located at the
new facilities. "Were not talking numbers right now," said the
spokesman.
IBM is looking at expanding its offshore presence beyond India in part
because the rapid influx of Western IT companies into the country -- IBM
itself now has more than 50,000 Indian employees -- has created wage
inflation and a shortage of managerial talent.
India produces 400,000 technically trained graduates a year, but many are
deficient in teamwork and language skills, according to a study released
last year by consultants at McKinsey & Co. To boot, the Western hiring
binge is leading to salary inflation of about 15% per year, according to
Indian IT executives.
Faced with such conditions, IBM and other U.S.-based outsourcers are
hedging their bets on India by searching out new, low-cost tech hot spots.
In addition to China, Russia, Eastern Europe and Brazil all are attracting
significant interest from tech services providers.
IBM also is enlisting industry partners in its globalization campaign. The
company said Monday that it would work with Cisco Systems to provide a
range of internationally consistent infrastructure support offerings.
4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/ci_5550015
Tech worker visa scramble begins
First day to file for skilled worker visa is Monday
By Michele R. Marcucci, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:03/29/2007 04:10:13 PM PDT
The end of March is a crazy time for Gali Schaham Gordon, and this year is
crazier than any she's faced before.
Gordon is an immigration attorney, and like others across the country, she
is frantically trying to complete her business clients' H-1B visa
applications before the visas, for high tech and other skilled workers, run
out.
Each year since 2004, when the H-1B visa "cap" dropped from a temporary
high of 195,000 to 65,000, the visas have disappeared in an ever-shrinking
time frame. Last year, the visas were gone in less than two months; another
20,000 visas set aside for workers with a master's degree or higher
disappeared in four months.
This year, the San Francisco-based Schaham and other immigration attorneys
said, the visa supply could be exhausted in a matter of days, due to
heightened awareness of the situation and increased hiring. So they're
rushing to get applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by
Monday, the first day of filing for next year's visas.
"This year, there's a huge scramble. Everyone assumes it's just going to
run out in a day," said Jean Kim, a San Francisco immigration lawyer whose
firm, Stiller+Buxbaum, expects to file about 60 applications Monday. "We're
all afraid that if we wait to file on Tuesday or Wednesday, that's it.
They're gone."
The H-1B frenzy may not be the first thing most Americans think about when
pondering immigration reform. But some business leaders say increasing the
number of visas and green cards for skilled foreign workers is critical to
the country's economic survival.
The visas, which employers file for, are for architects, engineers,
computer programmers, accountants and others in specialized fields
requiring theoretical or technical expertise. California companies held
more than one of every six of the visas in 2006, according to the
Department of Labor.
Business leaders have said America lacks the homegrown talent to drive its
knowledge industries, often because not enough natives are interested in
the jobs. And they said the nation's immigration policies are driving
foreign talent -- often trained at major American universities -- back
overseas, where it is becoming easier for them to work and start
businesses.
Some of the brightest lights in the new corporate firmament -- Yahoo, eBay,
Google and others -- were created by immigrants, they said, many schooled
in the U.S.
This year, roughly one-fifth of the University of California, Berkeley's
graduate students were from overseas; in 2004, more than a third of
Stanford's graduate students were, reports from those schools show.
But this year's university graduates likely won't be eligible for the
visas, business leaders and immigration attorneys said, because the visa
supply will run out before students get their diplomas this spring. That
means many will either have to take time off from jobs and head home until
a visa comes through. Or they'll leave the United States entirely.
Tech leaders and their industry groups are lobbying Congress to increase
the supply of visas and green cards for skilled workers. The fight has
lured luminaries such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, a longtime proponent
of removing the visa cap, who testified to Congress in early March.
Gates and others predict dire consequences if the changes aren't made,
which could include exporting scores of jobs.
"Because of the arbitrary caps, we have to go where the talent is. If the
talent is offshore, that's where we have to go," said Robert Hoffman, vice
president of government and public affairs for Oracle and co-chair of
Compete America, a coalition of corporations, universities and others that
is pushing for more job training and education and changed immigration
policies.
Some questioned corporations' drive to bring more foreign talent into the
U.S. workforce, saying immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans.
Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild, which represents hundreds of
tech workers across the country, said some companies are abusing the visas
for profit, using the visas to hire workers for lower wages. Without those
abuses, he said, the caps now in place would suffice.
"The vast majority of H-1Bs are being used to bring in average workers, for
average jobs, for below average pay," Berry said. "We don't have a shortage
of H-1B visas. We have a shortage of jobs."
He said companies should invest in educating native workers before looking
abroad.
Oracle's Hoffman said Compete America and other groups want that, too. "We
don't see this as either-or, American or foreign-born. We're seeing this as
having the innovation base to grow jobs for those in this country," he
said.
This year, the U.S. lost its place as a world leader in information
technology, mainly due to deterioration in the political and regulatory
environment, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Economic
Forum in Geneva.
And some businesses said Americans don't want the jobs they're offering.
"There's a shortage of U.S. workers in architecture and engineering. So all
of the firms are trying to grab them up quickly," said Debra Fiori,
director of human resources for RTKL Associates, a Baltimore-based
architecture firm and a client of Kim, the San Francisco immigration
attorney.
Fiori said when her company recruits new talent, 70 percent of talent pool
is foreign nationals; one in nine of its U.S. workforce is here on visas.
RTKL has been preparing for months to beat the H-1B rush, interviewing job
candidates as early as February so applications can be filed for hires to
start in October. Last summer, the firm was forced to temporarily lay off
some employees who didn't yet have visas so they could go home to wait for
them to come through, and Fiori expects a repeat this year.
She said her firm likely wouldn't offshore work. Without foreign workers
here, she said, it would likely need to turn down jobs.
"It would significantly impact our business," she said.
An immigration reform bill introduced March 22 in the House of
Representatives would boost the number of H-1B visas to as many as 180,000
a year with a cap exemption for those with advanced degrees from U.S.
schools. The bill would also double employer-sponsored green cards, to
290,000. Business leaders and immigration attorneys said they hope such a
bill can pass.
Until then, employers and their attorneys are toiling to get their visa
applications in for the first day of filing, with some application packages
set to arrive as soon as Saturday.
Kim said his firm has been working for months to prepare the applications,
prodding clients to get them the information they need so businesses aren't
left out in the cold.
"We have bins and bins of these applications, ready to go," he said.
Gordon said she expects to be working Saturday to finish getting
applications out.
"It's going to be a little nuts," she said. "But it'll be over soon."
Contact Michele R. Marcucci at mmarcucci@angnewspapers.com or (510)
208-6434.
5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_5564770?nclick_check=1
H-1B visa race to start
85,000 AVAILABLE FOR NEXT FISCAL YEAR
By Nicole C. Wong
Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:03/31/2007 01:51:21 AM PDT
Tech companies have been scrambling for months to finish government forms
and beat what may be their most intense postmark pressure of the year. It's
not the April 17 tax deadline, but the April 2 start of the window to apply
for coveted - and contentious - H-1B worker visas.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency will process petitions
for specially skilled foreign workers on a first-come, first-served basis
starting Monday. There are 85,000 visas available for the 2008 fiscal year,
of which 20,000 are set aside for workers who hold a U.S. master's or
doctorate degree. There are additional visas available for workers in
higher education, non-profits and government research. Last year, the cap
was reached in June.
Hewlett-Packard mailed its applications Friday.
"Having worked for several months to identify workers for whom we'll need
to secure H-1B status, we are as prepared as we can be," Leslie Nicolett,
HP's immigration policy manager, said in a statement.
Silicon Valley companies have lobbied Congress to increase the number of
H-1B visas doled out each year, arguing their innovative edge is at risk
when they're unable to fill job openings.
However, unemployed tech workers and grass-roots organizations assert there
are enough talented American workers ready to fill those slots - but
they're not willing to accept the lower wages companies can pay immigrants.
"The PR people are preying on Americans' fear," said Norman Matloff, a
professor of computer science at the University of California-Davis who is
critical of H-1B visas, speaking of the tech industry's purported concern
about the loss of innovation. "Just like we lost the electronics and
manufacturing industries, the fear is we'll lose the tech industry as
well."
The Immigration Act of 1990 set the H-1B visa cap at 65,000 to help U.S.
employers hire skilled foreign workers while protecting employment
prospects for Americans. Applications first bumped against that limit in
1997 due to "the burgeoning technology sector," according to agency
spokeswoman Sharon Rummery. The cap was raised during the tech boom and
bust years, but fell back to 65,000 in 2004.
The government does not release data on how many H-1B visas individual
companies receive, and Silicon Valley's major tech companies declined to
disclose how many they want or obtained. But several Web sites have posted
lists showing Intel, Oracle and Cisco Systems among the top 20 sponsors of
H-1B visas in recent years.
Intel and Oracle couldn't find representatives to comment Friday. Cisco
spokeswoman Robyn Jenkins-Blum said in an e-mail that the company's
position "is to recruit and hire the best and most qualified individual for
the position."
But Gene Nelson, an unemployed 55-year-old veteran of the information
technology industry, said because of H-1B visas, "We're just not getting a
crack at the these jobs."
Nelson holds a doctorate in biophysics. His most recent stint of
employment, which ended in December, was as a seasonal worker at a winery,
where he earned $12 an hour.
"The bottom line is these are good American jobs that aren't going to
Americans," he said.
But tech companies say some of their specialized positions can't be filled
by any American worker with the right degree and technical skills.
And the "insufficient number of visas" creates problems when a company
can't hire even a handful of workers, said Lowell Sachs, Sun Microsystems'
senior manager for federal government affairs. "You're going to start
losing your edge compared to the competition."
As a result, Sun pushes managers to anticipate more than a year in advance
who they'll want to hire.
"That's not great for a company to do," Sachs said. "There are always new
developments coming up that you need to be able to jump on top of quickly."
6. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/01/BUG1VOUJTG1.DTL
Tech firms scramble for visas
Monday key in race for limited -- and controversial -- H1-B permits for
foreign workers
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, April 1, 2007
While most Americans are relaxing today, hiring managers at Microsoft,
Oracle, Intel and other high-tech companies will be mailing applications to
U.S. immigration officials seeking permission to hire temporary foreign
ap on allotted visas was slashed from a record high of 195,000 to 65,000
per year, causing a heightened fury around H-1B filing time.
"Rushing to get an application in wasn't a problem before the cap was
lowered to 65,000. Now, it's never too early to be on notice," said
Plumless.
Applicants -- typically specialized workers such as computer programmers,
engineers and architects but also fashion models -- who are granted visas
are admitted into the United States for an initial period of six months,
which can be extended an additional three years.
The H-1B supply for the 2007 fiscal year was exhausted on May 31, 2006,
just two months after they'd been made available, a record year for demand.
It simultaneously heightened arguments by H-1B advocates -- typically large
technology companies that stand to benefit from an increased inflow of
foreign workers -- that the current cap had been set far too low, as well
as from opponents -- typically civil liberties unions and worker and IT
advocacy groups, who argue that these guest workers threaten American jobs.
Yet, a BusinessWeek report, published Feb. 7, shed light on the fact that
the companies that reap the most benefits from the H-1B visa program are
not technology companies such Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Oracle and Sun
Microsystems, which are usually associated with a large number of H-1B
workers, but Indian outsourcing firms.
In reviewing visa data for the 2006 fiscal year, the report found that
seven of the top 10 applicants were Indian companies that provided services
to U.S. companies from India, from technology support to back-office
processing. In fact, Infosys Technologies and Wipro took the top two spots
for the second year in a row. Cognizant Technology Solutions, based in
Teaneck, N.J., but operating mostly in India, took third place. The only
other U.S. companies in the top 10 were Deloitte & Touche, an accounting
and consulting firm, and Accenture, a consultancy, taking seventh and ninth
place, respectively.
Check out eWEEK.com's IT Management Center for the latest news, reviews and
analysis on IT management.
9. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9015098
Land rush for H-1B visas expected Monday
Patrick Thibodeau
March 30, 2007 (Computerworld) WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government will
begin accepting H-1B applications Monday, and immigration attorneys believe
that there will be a big rush of applications filed early next week -- so
many, in fact, that the federally mandated visa cap could be reached in a
day or two.
With that in mind, Irina Plumlee, a partner at the Dallas office of Gardere
Wynne Sewell LLP, intends to send off a stack of H-1B visa applications to
the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services (UCIS) for Monday arrival.
Other immigration attorneys are expected to do much the same thing.
"Our expectation is that the cap might well be filled as of April 2, and in
fact may be exceeded," said Plumlee. She attributes expectations that the
cap will be quickly exceeded to a continuing demand for workers as well as
concerns by companies that if they don't move quickly to get a visa, they
could miss out.
The U.S. is making 65,000 H-1B visas available under one cap; an additional
20,000 visas are set aside to advanced-degree graduates of U.S.
universities. The latter visa cap is not expected to be reached as quickly.
Beginning each April, the U.S. starts accepting applications for the visas,
which are not actually made available until the federal fiscal year begins
on Oct. 1. Last year, the cap was exhausted by May 26, which was the
earliest the limit had been reached ever.
Peter Roberts, an immigration attorney at McCarter & English LLP in
Stamford, Conn., also plans to send his H-1B applications by courier to
ensure that they arrive on Monday. He, too, is well aware of the
expectation among immigration attorneys that there's going to be a flood of
visa applications early next week.
"I think there is a self-fulfilling prophesy at work," said Roberts,
"because of the fear that [the H-1B visas] are going to be used up.
Everybody is loading up on the front end."
Vic Goel, an immigration attorney in Reston, Va., who has long tracked this
issue, said in an e-mail that he expects visa applications to hit the cap
by either Monday or Tuesday.
Chris Bentley, a spokesman for the immigration service, said the agency is
not predicting when the cap will be reached. But if applications hit the
limit, some of applicants may have to settle for a random selection
process.
For instance, if UCIS receives 55,000 H-1B applications on Monday and
another 30,000 on Tuesday, it will use a computer program to randomly pick
the number it needs from the applications that arrive Tuesday to fill the
65,000-visa quota. The rest would be rejected. The UCIS accepts more than
it can hand out in the expectation that some will be rejected.
There is, as is usually the case, a push on in Congress to raise the cap. A
broad immigration reform bill co-sponsored by Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.)
and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) would raise the cap from 65,000 to 180,000. The
measure seeks to remove all limits on issuing visas to foreign nationals
who have advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering or math from
U.S. universities.
10. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_5537306?source=email&nclick_check=1
Tech group says U.S. loses ground to rivals
By Constance Loizos
Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:03/28/2007 01:46:07 AM PDT
The United States' position of leadership in science and technology is
steadily being eroded by a series of missteps, a Washington-based high-tech
industry group warns in a report being released today.
Using member testimonials and U.S. government data, the AeA - formerly
known as the American Electronics Association - paints a disquieting
picture in its 32-page, six-month-long study.
Largely, the report highlights the heightened competition facing the United
States as "other countries catch up," including South Korea, which
according to data cited in the report from the U.S. National Science
Foundation, has passed the United States in the numbers of engineering
undergraduate degrees that it is awarding, along with China and Japan.
Indeed, while the issues highlighted in this report were first examined by
the AeA two years ago in a study titled "Losing the Competitive Advantage?"
the group wanted to "better emphasize possible courses of action" in its
newest report, according to one of the study's two authors, Matthew
Kazmierczak, a vice president of research and analysis at the AeA.
Among its suggestions: lowering barriers for high-skilled individuals to
receive temporary work visas and giving green cards to all U.S.-educated
students with master's and doctorate degrees.
It also laments "waning commitments" to research and development by the
government and the low math and proficiency scores of kindergarten through
12th-grade American students as reasons why the United States is falling
behind - and why it needs to act quickly to reverse the trend.
Charlie Sundling, chairman and chief executive of Santa Ana enterprise
software company Pipeline Group, said the report's focus on the need for
more and better visas for foreign-born workers is a subject that is
particularly important to him.
Pipeline, an AeA member, has "had several guys who haven't been able to get
their green cards, including three or four who've been here for five
years," said Sundling, who added that a couple of years ago, he "lost" one
individual who visited his home in India and was denied entry back into the
United States.
"The irony is that after five or six years, we're sending these people back
who immediately found their own companies and become our stiffest
competition," he said. "They leave armed not only with intellectual
property, but they gain material advantages, often operating in
environments where labor costs are one-fifth what they are in the U.S."
Tom Campbell, dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of
California-Berkeley, echoed that point, saying, "It's crazy to educate
(foreign-born workers) at taxpayer expense, with federal money, then see
them go" back home to start or work for companies in other countries.
Not everyone sees trouble ahead, however, including University of
California-Davis computer science Professor Norman Matloff, who has written
extensively about immigration and employment issues, as well as conducted
his own research. While Matloff agreed that "huge" visa reform is needed,
he said the biggest problem for foreign-born workers is that they are often
subject to "legal wage" requirements, which are often lower than what
Americans receive for the same work.
Of the shortage of engineers in the United States, Matloff called it
"baloney. We have plenty of engineers. All you have to do is look at
starting salaries. They're not going up, and they would be if there were a
shortage."
Indeed, asked if Pipeline had ever laid off any engineers, Sundling said
the company has. "We went through the dot-com ramp-up and down the other
side, and we did lay off engineers." Still, he said, "We've also faced
repeated challenges in recruiting capable talent in the United States.
That's not an imaginary problem."
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