The Competitive Enterprise Institute supports more freedom and less bureaucracy for temporary foreign workers who are not U.S. citizens. Opponents are not convinced. –
H-1B
visa policy as currently run by the United States Customs and Immigration
Services is under attack from all sides.
An
October advocacy paper by a conservative-leaning think tank calls for
abolishing time restrictions, lowering or eliminating most of the fees, ridding
company sponsors an…
Is it the economic slowdown or the recent visa fee increase that is keeping H-1B visa applications at bay? Fiscal year 2011 is coming soon, but there is still a big chunk of visa applications available. – With less than one month
before fiscal year 2011 begins in October, there are about 30,100 available
visas for technology companies to apply for through the temporary work visa
program known widely by its specific government designation, “H-1B visa.”
The H-1B program is used by technology compan…
Supporters, detractors and reformers of the latest law that will place a $2,000 increase on H-1B visas is not expected to impact American jobs or curtail companies from seeking to use temporary, foreign workers. The measure is expected to sting U.S and India trade relations. – The
measure to increase fees on H-1B visas that was attached to the $600 billion border security bill by
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) passed both houses of Congress was signed in to
law by the president on Aug. 13. What proponents and advocates on all sides
of the debate have to ask themselves is…
Foreign outsourcing companies are facing fee hikes for work visas in a measure attached to a border security bill that passed the Senate. If signed into law, work visas will be more expensive and politicians can tout protecting American workers and securing the border, but will any of it help grow technology jobs in the U.S.? – The
cliche quot;everything is politics quot; couldnt be more true when it comes
to work visas in the United States.
If
a border security bill makes it to the desk of President Obama, fees for H-1B
and L-1B visas will increase by $2,000 each for a large segment of the visa-using
companies. The…
News Analysis: The weak U.S. economy and more stringent scrutiny from an often hostile immigration bureaucracy has caused a sharp increase in the number of unused H-1B work visa slots. – The flagging U.S. economy is a major reason why nearly 40,000 H-1B visa application slots are currently unused, and an
additional 9,000 slots in the Masters Exemption program are still open.
This is a significant drop in applications from previous
years, according to immigration attorney Kellie …
Industry group TechServe Alliance, the American Staffing Association and three staffing companies specializing in H-1B visa holder candidates are pursuing a lawsuit in federal court to protest a ruling that they claim is killing business. At the heart of the matter is the government’s effort to weed out fraud and abuse while making sure employers have daily supervision over H-1B visa workers. – Staffing companies that specialize in recruiting H-1B visa
holders for technology positions are pushing back at Uncle Sam with a lawsuit.
A senior official of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services, Donald Neufield, published a memo in January changing the rules for what
constituted a tr…
A University of California professor refutes claims made in a recent University of Maryland study that H-1B visa holders make more money than U.S. technology workers. Professor Norman Matloff dissects the wage numbers used, finds what he claims are critical omissions and discusses his own studies and others which found the majority of H-1B visa holders earn 15 to 20 percent less than U.S. workers. – In response to a recently published University of Maryland study,
eWEEK interviewed Norman Matloff of the University of California,
Davis, to get his perspective on the findings. The Maryland findings
claim H-1B visa holders typically earn more in wages in
the U.S. when you control for education…
A University of Maryland report claims to dispel the idea that programs such as H-1B visas and foreign workers are cheap sources of labor for American companies. The study finds foreign workers in the United States have actually earned more than U.S. tech professionals. The study’s authors, professors Sunil Mithas and Henry Lucas, recently spoke with eWEEK on the implications of wage deltas between the United States and visa workers. – The following question-and-answer interview
seeks to get a better understanding of the findings and implications of the
recently published report, quot;Are Foreign IT Workers Cheaper? U.S. Visa Policies and
Compensation of Information Technology Professionals, quot; from the University of Maryla…
A new U.S. Department of Labor Website supplies information on the laws and regulations relevant to H-1B visa holders and H-1B visa-holding companies. While much of the material has been available for several years, the information should now be more accessible. – The U.S. Department of Labor has launched a Website that
seeks to educate companies about the laws, regulations and policies that apply
to H-1B visa holders. The Elaws H-1B Advisor was designed to help
employees and employers understand their rights and responsibilities under
numerous federal e…
A proposal by three U.S. senators would stiffen many of the regulations surrounding H-1B and L-1 visas, including an increase in U.S. worker displacement protection and restricting the number of H-1B and L-1 employees that certain U.S. companies could hire. While many companies in Silicon Valley have lobbied Congress to raise the cap on H-1B visa holders, many lawmakers have pushed back, arguing that the system is rifled with fraud issues. In 2008, a USCIS report found the H-1B program had a more than 20 percent violation rate.
– A new proposal by U.S.
Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bob Menendez, D-N.J.,
would see a stiffening of the regulations surrounding H-1B and L-1 visas,
including restricting the number of H-1B and L-1 employees that U.S. companies
of a certain size could hire. While the pla…
Is there an actual technology skill shortage in the United States, or do companies simply want less expensive H-1B visa workers to complement their largely American-based workforce? A nonprofit immigration advocacy group looks at some of the numbers and attempts to demystify the issues, as it pushes for more visas and green cards. Opponents say if there were a real technology shortage, wages for technology would be rising. They are not.
– How many H-1B visa holders are in the U.S.
workforce? In fiscal year 2009, 0.06 percent of the national labor force was
made up of H-1B visa holders, according to analysis of U.S.
immigration data by the nonprofit public policy group the National Foundation
for American Policy (NFAP). In that sa…
A court finds federal investigators acted recklessly the in the aftermath of last year’s nationwide bust of an alleged nationwide H-1B scam ring, arresting 11 people in seven states and bringing a 10-count indictment against a New Jersey IT services firm, Vision Systems Group.
– More than a year ago, federal agents arrested 11 people in seven states for submitting false statements and documents in support of their H-1B visa petitions. The Department of Justice also issued indictments IT services firm Vision Systems Group of New Jersey for conspiracy and mail fraud involving…
There are currently 21 companies that have been debarred by the U.S. Department of Labors Wage and Hour Division as being willful violators of laws that regulate the use of H-1B visas for foreign workers. Here, eWEEK looks at 11 different technology or IT-related companies that are on the Labor Departments list, including a look at the companies locations and periods of debarment. During the debarment period, these companies are not allowed to apply for or obtain H-1B visas for foreign workers. These IT companies have committed either a willful failure or a misrepresentation of a material fact, according to Labor Department statistics. One company that faces additional sanctions is Peri Software Solutions, which currently owes $1.4 million in back wages. Right now, Peri Softwares petition is under review by the Labor Department.
– …
Peri Software Solutions of New Jersey is in deep H-1B water with the Department of Labor. Peri Software has been cited for violating prevailing wage law for 163 H-1B visa employees and will likely be disallowed from the H-1B visa program for two years.
– The U.S. Department of Labor is not happy with one New
Jersey-based software company using H-1B visas.
Peri Software Solutions, which has offices in Los Angeles and San Jose, Calif., and offshore in Chennai,
India, is accused of
violating prevailing wage law for a large contingent of H-1B vis…
A new study by the Economic Policy Institute claims some companies are using the H-1B visa program to transfer work overseas and to take advantage of cheaper guest worker labor.
– Despite claims to the contrary, many tech firms are using H-1B visas to
fill temporary positions and not as a pathway to permanent citizenship,
according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute.
quot;Some
H-1Bs and L-1s visa holders do make it to permanent residence, but many
empl…
The Electronic Frontier Foundation contends that recent New Jersey court rulings that shut down three H-1B protest sites are out of legal bounds. An EFF official calls the moves dangerous and wrong, and argues that the state’s court is failing to safeguard the right of anonymous speech.
– The December shutdown by a New
Jersey court of three H-1B protest sites accused of libel ITgrunt.com,
Endh1b.com and Guestworkerfraud.com has legal technology advocates up in arms.
The Electronic Frontier
Foundation has said the court is doing damage to the constitutional right of
anonymous fr…
An ALF-CIO report pokes holes in U.S. guest worker programs and sheds light on the core issue of wage reduction for technical professionals in the United States and expanded entry of guest workers into newer fields such as health care and education. The report touches on the oft-cited abuse and mistreatment of guest workers from foreign countries, as well as closely examining near-stagnant wages for U.S. workers and H-1B visa holders.
– Based on the research of the National Research
Council, the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Education, the
Computing Research Association, the National Academy of Sciences, the National
Academy of Engineering, the RAND Corporation and a host of other university research
sourc…
A mix of U.S. and Asian-based technology, financial and consulting companies top the list of enterprises that have applied for and received approval for H-1B visas in 2009.
There are at least 200 companies that applied for H-1B visas in 2009. The major technology companies that did not rank in the Top 25, but did rank in the Top 50 include Yahoo, Amazon, Apple, Texas Instruments, Nvidia and IBM.
Some of the leading research universities in the United States also rank in the Top 50. Some of the top H-1B visa obtainers this year included University of Maryland, University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins, University of Illinois, University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Pittsburgh, Columbia, and Baylor College of Medicine.
The following gallery is a countdown of the Top 25 companies from No. 25 to No. 1 and the specific number of H-1B visas these companies were granted by the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
– …
As part of a libel lawsuit, a court issues takedown orders to hosting and domain providers for ITgrunt.com, Endh1b.com and Guestworkerfraud.com. Apex, an IT consulting company, claims the sites are engaging in false and defamatory statements about Apex’s employment agreement.
– A New Jersey county superior
court judge has ordered takedown notices for three anti-H-1B Websites as part
of a libel lawsuit by IT consulting company Apex Technology Group. The sites
targeted by Judge James Hurley are ITgrunt.com, Endh1b.com and
Guestworkerfraud.com. The judge also ordered Face…
USCIS officials intend to up the ante of verifying and investigating the validity of H-1B visa usage by companies. Immigration officials will ramp up law enforcement to help thwart fraud and quell political pressure that wants to severely limit H-1B visa usage.
– The United States Customs and Immigrations
Services plans to up its enforcement of the law on H-1B visas and the
U.S. companies that take advantage of them by conducting 25,000
on-site inspections in 2010. IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Google and many
technology
giants and smaller IT shops employ tem…
