@ALL About US Visa (H1B) 'Loopholes'

[Rance]

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This news also impact the Filipino IT professionals... mag ka lisud ug samot adtos US work.. Singapore nalang ta ani.

Senators Target US Visa (H1B) 'Loopholes'http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/apr2008/db2008041_877540.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

With U.S. unemployment on the rise, scrutiny of visa worker programs is growing. Critics of H-1B say outsourcers such as Infosys Technologies (INFY) and Wipro (WIT) are abusing the program, replacing U.S. employees with cheaper foreign workers whom they ultimately cycle into new jobs in their home countries. They argue that the L-1 visa, allowing for intra-company transfers, is being similarly abused.

[img width=500 height=367]http://peningoblog.com/images/monopoly_outsourcer.jpg[/img]

Senate Quizzes Indian Companies
The rift has emerged because of the starkly different ways the two groups of tech companies are using U.S. laws to bring foreign workers into the country. Microsoft, for example, often uses temporary work visas, known as H-1Bs, to hire high-level foreign programmers and engineers as they graduate from American universities, and then helps them gain American citizenship so they can stay in the States. In contrast, Wipro brings in many employees from its India operations to work at client facilities and then rotates them back to India so they are more effective at providing tech support and other services to clients.

The Indian companies have come under fire over the issue in recent weeks. Politicians, led by Senator Dick Durbin (D- Ill.), say the H-1B visas are being used to outsource American jobs to other countries. In a speech earlier this month, Durbin said he's concerned the program is "being abused by foreign companies to deprive qualified Americans of good jobs." On May 14, Durbin and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent letters to nine Indian companies requesting detailed information on how the companies use the temporary work visas .

Durbin and Grassley want data on a number of topics from the nine Indian outsourcers. They want to know how many U.S. citizens each employs, how much they pay their workers, and whether hiring H-1B workers has resulted in any layoffs.

Arguments over the issue are sure to intensify in the next few days, as companies are expected to submit their responses by May 29. Infosys, Wipro, and Cognizant all declined to comment for this article.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...523_485361.htm

Crackdown on Indian Outsourcing Firms
Two senators are probing how Indian outsourcing firms use U.S. work visas, with an eye on new restrictions

Many Indian applicants http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...515_218119.htm

[img width=500 height=376]http://peningoblog.com/blog/images/bill_gates_shhhhh_2.jpg[/img]

[LytSlpr]

This is pure exaggeration.

These politicians just wants to milk out money from these big companies. The visa cap is only 65,000 annually and if I am not mistaken, 20-25k of the 65k is for individuals with a certain degree of credentials such as for foreign individuals who acquired a master's degree in the U.S. and for people who are qualified to teach in U.S. universities, the rest are for specialty occupations.

If you get the numbers, H-1B workers can hardly outnumber potential American employees for these positions. Though there are companies exempted from the lottery probably where the so called abuse comes into play, in normal circumstances H-1B visa applications undergo an electronic lottery.

Moreover, hiring foreign workers through H-1B does not mean cheap labor because by law these employees SHOULD be paid with the same rate as the Americans are getting.

[vern]

This is really a he said/she said issue so I'm not even going to touch it.

But ... there is no law that states that these employees should be paid for example 80k a year as opposed to 40k a year. People getting these visas aren't minimum wage workers and employers can thus negotiate salaries lower.

[LytSlpr]

This is really a he said/she said issue so I'm not even going to touch it.

But ... there is no law that states that these employees should be paid for example 80k a year as opposed to 40k a year. People getting these visas aren't minimum wage workers and employers can thus negotiate salaries lower.

that's right but there is a law that they cannot get lower than the minimum rate for a certain position in a particular state according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor and O.Net. i guess in a nutshell, what i am trying to say that for example for a systems administrator, if an american gets paid the lowest rate for such position, it does not mean a foreign worker on an H-1B visa can get lower even if the employers play hard ball.

moreover, the petitioned foreign worker on an H visa should get the same and not lower than american employees for the same position.

this the reason why gutsy petitioned filipino employees don't give a qualms on breaching their contracts with their petitioning employers because they have solid proof that their petitioners try to circumvent the law by letting them sign a different contract when already abroad with a different job description for a lower rate. it is a game of shakedown. these employers and agencies know very well that is illegal because the job description and the corresponding rates is on the petition itself. so when the foreign worker challenges these big petitioning companies, they just keep quiet because their petitioning privileges might get revoked and get banned with USCIS.

[vern]

Those laws are meant for hourly, low salary jobs. There is no set pay scale for systems adminstrators for the government to be able to enforce such a law. These jobs aren't exactly low paying jobs. They don't come to the US to work at McDonalds and are paid lower ... then your law would take effect. The only good news is that companies who need the talent will almost always pay top dollar for the employees. You should re-examine the laws you speak of closer and know that laws can differ from state to state to federal.

[Rance]

There are agencies in the government who handle issues like that.. the like DOL for example enforces that the employer before applying for H1B status for any alien worker pursuant to an H1B LCA at wages at least equal to the US resident versus those offered to work as H1B. The employer must pay the worker at least the same wage rate as paid to other employees with similar experience and qualifications or the local prevailing wage (differ every state) for the occupation in the area of employment, whichever is higher. When submitted to the USCIS for the application it must be written and stated to what rate and salary range the H1B candidate will recieve as a compensation and other benefits.

If any employer will enforce a new rate that is lower versus the one approved by USCIS/DOL then, that is illegal. They must adhere the compliance else, employer will suffer fines or maybe banned if reported.

[vern]

And those rates are below the salaries being paid to employees already here. They simply require a minimum not to mention the many companies are multinational that throw another value into the equation.

[LytSlpr]

There are agencies in the government who handle issues like that.. the like DOL for example enforces that the employer before applying for H1B status for any alien worker pursuant to an H1B LCA at wages at least equal to the US resident versus those offered to work as H1B. The employer must pay the worker at least the same wage rate as paid to other employees with similar experience and qualifications or the local prevailing wage (differ every state) for the occupation in the area of employment, whichever is higher. When submitted to the USCIS for the application it must be written and stated to what rate and salary range the H1B candidate will recieve as a compensation and other benefits.

If any employer will enforce a new rate that is lower versus the one approved by USCIS/DOL then, that is illegal. They must adhere the compliance else, employer will suffer fines or maybe banned if reported.

Mao sad ni akong pagkahibaw.

The USCIS policy and procedure is federal, only the salary rate differs from state to state.

[vern]

When it comes to policy differences that concern the state, state laws trump federal laws.

[Rance]

The policies are administrated by the agencies like DOL or USCIS which has the authority to enforce the law.. the per state differences are specific to salary rates which of course varies between someone working in the big city which carries a high cost of living versus the guy working in the urban areas or small income state.. that's what I thought.