High Rate of H-1B Visa Fraud – BusinessWeek — And, of course, our two stirling candidates for President BOTH want more of the same.
Critics say H-1Bs help U.S. companies replace American workers with less costly foreign workers. “The report makes it clear that the H-1B program is rife with abuse and misuse,” says Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology. “It shows the desperate need for an auditing system.” However, both Presidential candidates, Senator Barack Obama D-Ill. and Senator John McCain R-Ariz., have said they support expanding the program.
Program Abuses AllegedThe H-1B visa program has become increasingly controversial in recent years as groups such as the Programmers Guild and WashTech, which represent U.S. tech workers, allege it is being abused, resulting in mistreatment of foreign workers, wage depression, and the displacement of U.S. workers. The program was originally set up to allow companies in the U.S. to import the best and brightest in technology, engineering, and other fields when such workers are in short supply in America. But data released this year by the federal government show that offshore outsourcing firms, particularly from India, dominated the list of companies that were awarded H-1B visas to employ workers in the U.S.
There is also evidence that workers on H-1B visas are being mistreated.
Found by Steve Schlackman.
And of course it’s our candidates’ fault that fraud exists. The bastards.
About 1 1/2 years ago I placed ads for QA, Snr. S/W Engineer & other programming jobs from kernel to web.
I got tons of apps. About 25% were H1B guys that were in the States and out of work. (by law they should have been gone) There is no shortage of domestic tech workers. There is no need for the program at this time.
Stoking ww3 fires. They took your jobs, now go fight to take them back.
“Stirling” was the guy with the engine. “Sterling” refers to our valuable-as-silver (as in pound-sterling) candidates.
Of course in the highly outsourced world American systems developers now work in most are not native English speakers so niceties like correct grammar and spelling are not significant.
From wikipedia “A Stirling engine is a closed-cycle regenerative heat engine with a gaseous working fluid.”
Sounds like a pretty accurate description of our political process to me. I understand it’s also sometimes difficult to extract meaningful work from Stirling engines…
I am sure my friend Spencer Abraham, who introduced this bill as a freshman senator, is thrilled.
Yeah, better to have all the jobs go overseas right?
H-1B program should be dropped completely. The number of tech graduates from American colleges has exceeded the number of new tech jobs for a few years now. H-1B is just keeping wages down, and leading to unemployment in the tech sector.
At the very least, require that foreign tech workers be paid the same as American workers, and watch the demand for H-1B applications drop to 0.
Sounds like most of you delude yourselves and think politicians are out to protect US citizens.
That’s so cute and naive. They do what the corporation oligarchy dictates.
Foreign workers are required to be paid the same under law, but the companies can get around it pretty easily.
Vote Chuck Baldwin
http://www.baldwin08.com/
lets see..
Many corps used to PAY money to Tech schools and colleges to help OFFSET costs of teaching/suppling Tech schools. Or even start their OWN.
NOW they dont..
They HIRE those they can HIDE under the table,
Those that DONT KNOW THEIR RIGHTS,
DONT know their BENEFITS,
And they TAKE a job away from a Citizen??
NOW, when you goto MOST schools to learn computers, they teach you WINDOWS.
Fine, If they want to BE THIS WAY.. LETS ALL GET LAZY, LETS TAX THEM INTO THE DIRT TO PAY US TO BE ON WELFARE..
I went through the H1B process myself and I know many others who’ve done that. While I am not disputing that the system is flawed in many ways, all those who I know personally are 1) better educated than their American colleagues; 2) know and do their stuff much better; 3) are more adaptable, creative and hard-working than the locals. In terms of the compensation, I am being paid well above the average and those who I know don’t get underpaid either.
Hate to poke your bubble for you, but, hey, nothing personal, this is a competition and this is how the capitalism works. There are many Americans who go overseas and stay competitive. They are not the ones who whine and complain non-stop about being discriminated against. If you have skills that are in demand, they are going to hire you. If you THINK that you have skills and nobody hires you, well, tough love.
#13
It is common knowledge that nationwide many, many IT firms and IT departments post jobs with ridiculous requirements that nobody can actually meet and even post jobs that don’t actually exist, just to get an H1-B visa application started.
Once the H1-B visa is granted, these firms then hire entry-level staff from overseas, knowing full well that no one will go back to check on them.
You see, the H1-B regime is a government bureaucracy, an underfunded one at that. And all companies have to do is prove they posted a job and got no qualified candidates.
They do not have to prove that the person they actually hired is better qualified than any available American job seeker, or that the person they hired actually filled the position they once said they couldn’t fill.
Here is an example from personal experience:
I got a call from a prestigious company’s internal recruiter for a position in their very large city that is 2000 miles away for an average-level position in a market with plenty of qualified people.
The job had a mix of skills that I suppose is a bit of a weird mix, but not that uncommon. I have the skills required, but I cannot believe that my resume was so spectacular that they felt it necessary to go so far as to offer relocation to me.
Why on earth would they reach out to me in this way? I’ll tell you.
I’d bet my last dollar that my refusal to relocate my family is documented in a file folder as evidence to begin an H1-B visa application.
I guarantee you that there were qualified, available, Americans in that city.
FWIW, I’m not having any trouble finding work, so I harbor no resentment. I just think that it’s important to see the system for what it is: largely a valid way to get staff, but also a way to keep downward pressure on wages.
#13 “While I am not disputing that the system is flawed in many ways, all those who I know personally are 1) better educated than their American colleagues; 2) know and do their stuff much better; 3) are more adaptable, creative and hard-working than the locals.”
As someone who has employed hundreds I have to say that you are very misinformed. The only difference I saw was a willingness of H-1B holders to work for less…
13,
And what Benefits did you get?
NOT as many as the USA worker is supposed to.
The Taxes and so forth the GOV. forces Business to PAY on a USA worker, is about equivalent to 1/2-3/4 of the WORKERS wages.. A worker at $10 per hour, the BUSINESS generally ends up paying as MUCH in benefits and TAX FOR that worker, as well as wages. Ends up to about $15+per hour..IF he can ever claim any of it. AS WELL as a USA worker knows the laws and regulations of BEING employed in the USA.
## 14, 15, 16
I am not claiming that I know everything, just sharing my personal experience and what I witnessed. I never felt being taken advantage of. I do read about stories of “abuse”, but my experience and experience of my friends and acquaintances is different. On the contrary, some companies go to a great length to retain their H1B employees and accommodate their circumstance because their talents and attitudes are so different.
In terms of the lower wages, again, I am a big proponent of the free market and the free flow of the labor, capitals and goods. If someone somewhere is willing to provide a comparable product for less, no matter how hard you would try to artificially inflate your value, it ain’t gonna work. If someone is milking the system and takes advantage of the bureaucracy, the system may be flawed, but it doesn’t change the basic principle that one needs to be able to compete, not to artificially inflate the self valuation.
One of the reasons I hate Bill Gates is because he was a major influence in H1B visas in the technology sector.
As someone who actually adjudicates H1B petitions overseas, I can confirm that the program is absolutely broken. I don’t think it can be tinkered with to be fixed either. It should be scrapped and a new system should take its place.
The problem with the adjudication process is this: DHS handles the petition from the U.S. company. It is their job to make sure the company is legitimate and the job is real. Of course, it is very difficult to prove the negative and they are prone to getting sued if they don’t approve the petition. Further, rooting out H1B fraud is very low on the priority list for an agency like DHS. An approved petition gets sent to a consular officer overseas for adjudication. It is only at this point that the petition actually gets individual attention. The consular officer will meet with the beneficiary at least once and sometimes several times to make sure that they are actually qualified. Fraud is rampant but tools and money exist to weed out the worst offenders.
However, it takes time to do this investigation and there can be a lot of petitions to go through. As such, it can take many months – sometimes even a year or more to actually approve an applicant. This means that the company in the U.S. is waiting for an employee for an unknown and sometimes long duration of time. No company that actually needs to hire someone can afford to operate this way. So, some smart entrepreneurs – mostly Indians – have set up what amounts to staffing companies in the U.S. to bring in H1Bs. It is only after the applicant is brought in that they actually get farmed out to the client of these companies to do the real work. Few companies aside from Microsoft and its ilk can afford to do anything other than hire contractor H1Bs from these Indian staffing firms. We call this benching and it is a labor violation but who is going to enforce it?
#19, airphloo,
We call this benching and it is a labor violation but who is going to enforce it?
John McCain will !!! He is always talking about doing away with regulations that stifle American companies.
Go John !!! What? He already went? OK, somebody get him a clean Depends.
#17
I don’t doubt your abilities. I am sure you are a fantastic worker, and I am sincerely glad that you have not experienced any abuse.
However, the point of this conversation is that H1-B was meant to help companies find qualified staff due to shortages in the American labor market.
The H1-B visa was never meant to import cheap labor, so the crux of your point is irrelevant.
All nations have similar rules. I could not go to France or the Czech Republic, or even India and get a job without proper papers.
This is very interesting.
# 21
Thank you for your compassion. Well, I believe you are the one missing the point. In my particular case the H1B worked exactly as intended: I was hired (and, as I suspect, avoided the abuse) precisely because there WAS a shortage of my skills in the market at that time. Just because the system is abused by some doesn’t mean that it is broken beyond repair.