Uncle Sam sounds like it may actually do something about rampant visa H-1B fraud The US has seen a surge in employers making multiple H-1B visa registrations to bring skilled foreign workers into the country, a trend that authorities fear reflects rising immigration fraud. The H-1B program is popular among technology companies as a way to bring foreign workers into America. For those aliens, the H-1B …
I think you're thinking of the O-1 visa, which is for exceptionally talented people. H-1B is a tier below that, and it's not the only option for immigrant workers (E-2, L-1, EB-1C, etc etc)
But yes, IT agencies are flooding the system and it does not result in an equal, flat playing field IMHO. H-1B and EB-1C are incredibly problematic.
C.
The US Department of Labor posts lists of violators and debarred/disqualified employes on its website:
H-1B Willful Violator List of Employers
H-1B Debarred/Disqualified List of Employers
After reading the article i expected a lot more entries in those lists.
Was asking for $$ up front that much of a deterrent or do they only go after/post the most blatant violators?
As it is still for non immigrants i wouldn't consider it gold standard as an employee intending to move to the US permanently.
If you plan to stay you should apply for an E visa category or do i have that wrong?
One of the reasons why H1-B is so popular is that its a dual intent visa. So you can enter the US declaring that you will stay only for the brief duration of your visa, but during that term you can legally change your mind and apply for a more permanent status. Most other visa types don't allow you to switch intentions while in the US - you have to return to a permanent home-country and apply for another visa from there.
Believe it or not: when I got my H-1B, about a decade ago, my lawyer advised that they'd only just returned to being oversubscribed — as long as we got our application in on the first day then there should be no need to take part in the lottery. And there wasn't.
She thought it was the effect of the financial crisis still lingering.
Not withstanding the actual text of the law, the purpose is to allow employers to get cheap foreign labor and push domestic wages down.
The solution is to make employers bid on the visas, which will lead to people paying full market value, and hence not saving money, for said visas.
Also, if the visas were issued on a monthly basis, it would favor smaller firms that actually have needs, and make it more difficult companies like TATA and Infosys to game the system.
"the purpose is to allow employers to get cheap foreign labor and push domestic wages down.".
I assume it is one of the reasons, and it's certainly eagerly used in some countries mostly among people who have nothing to with employing people. but I do think Dr. Michio Kaku knows something about what he is speaking about here many years ago.
And yes I dislike the use of "genius" in his speech.
Education for profit might not be a profitable longtime strategy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK0Y9j_CGgM
I've been approached hundreds of times to go work in the US and many times with the recruiter pointing out they will help me get the H-1B visa. Their interest wanes when they find out I don't need a visa to work in the USA.
/Mines the coat with two passports
This seems like a problem that, should there be ANY political will to fix it, would be amongst the easiest of America's problems to fix.
Change 1 - Firm to apply must be the firm doing the work (no subcontracting) and the employee must work on the applying companies site.
That should put a big dent in the number of subcontracting firms making applications.
Change 2 (the big one) - it's no longer a lottery. Positions go to those who will be receiving the highest salary. Simple, no? This visa is intended for employers who can't find American employees, so they should be paying pretty high for those employees.
Oh and these employees get the special attention of the IRS, to make sure that the pay listed is actually what is being paid. Attempts to bypass this to lead to CEO & CFO levels beyond heels personally responsible.
Oh look you suddenly have the entire system working how it was intended. I'll collect my consulting fee now thanks...
The country is concerned, as lowered labor costs and higher productivity have not translated to more pay for workers for 40+ years (AKA wage stagnation).
The sociopaths that run the country (politicians, C-suites, donor class, etc) are also concerned, as those lowered costs have contributed directly to their hoard.
H-1B has been primarily an Indian Immigration Visa:
https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/data/h-1b-petitions-by-gender-country-of-birth-fy2019.pdf
And this isn't even an outlier, over at least the last decade India has seen an overwhelming number of H-1B visa assignments (>65% of all visas) for every single year.
I'd very much like to see the rationale why citizens of a 3rd world country with a solid track record of being a factory for worthless degrees are granted such an excessively large amount of H-1B visas compared to other countries with better education systems.
In the 2019 example above, of the 421k visas, almost 362k visas (86.3%) went to only two countries (India and China), leaving an assignment of just 13.7% for the 100+ other countries on the list.
I would very much like to see some evidence why India is seen as deserving such a preferential treatment. Because I very much doubt that Indian workers are 6x as qualified as Chinese workers, 78x as qualified as a Canadian worker, or 252x as qualified as say a German worker.
Being the two most populous countries in the world might have something to do with it. Both have some very good universities too, but by dint of their population, they also have a large number of less good universities. It's up the potential employers to sort out who is actually good.
"Being the two most populous countries in the world might have something to do with it."
I doubt that. Both India and China have approx 1.4B people each, so around 2.8B people for both countries.
Now let's look at the EU, which has approx 500M people, which means India's and China's combined population is approx 5.6x the EU population.
And yet, India and China don't just get assigned 5.6x the number of visas that go to the EU but more than 42x (approx 363k vs 8500 visas for 2019).
And of course, there's the fact that the population of both China and India is, on average, poor and often poorly educated, while average education levels in the EU are much higher.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/education-rankings-by-country
So clearly population numbers aren't the reason.
"Both have some very good universities too, but by dint of their population, they also have a large number of less good universities."
China yes, but India?
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2023/world-ranking
The first entry for India isn't even under the top 200. Which is probably why educated Indians usually have a degree from an US or European university.
There's another ranking table where India fares slightly better (177st rank, still not great):
https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2022
"It's up the potential employers to sort out who is actually good."
It is, and that's why we have seen so many American workers replaced by sub-standard H-1B workers, which if the original intent of the H-1B visa (which was to allow bringing highly skilled specialists to the US) was followed, most wouldn't qualify.
Making this up as I go along :
If I were in the intended category for this program, and I were in India or China, I might be quite eager to "escape" to the United States. If I were in much of Europe... well, it's rare that I hear European/UK commentards on this site speak well of the US.
Agree with the earlier comment that drawing applicants at random, rather than applications (so that submitting ten applications doesn't bump up your chances tenfold) would be a good step.
It isn't necessarily preferential treatment driving the petitions. Your are comparing four countries, two which have significantly lower standard-of-living and two with countries that usually measure above the US in almost all major metrics. It is far more likely that that a person from China and India will apply for a visa than that of a Canadian or German. As a person who works in the tech industry in Seattle that makes decent pay, I can still see why neither Canadian or Germans are clambering to come work in the US. People from those countries, in many ways have better working/life conditions than those of us in the US. All is not perfect but you are less likely to go destitute from random occurrences (ie. healthcare) or be exploited in Canada/Germany.
Also, you have to consider that everything may not be above-board with sponsorships from corporations. It might be cheaper to hire someone from overseas than to hire a native worker. They might be preying on a workers unfamiliarity of the US' laws and work culture to exploit them. This isn't a 'kids these days' remark but someone who is taking the risk to travel oversees for work might just be a more motivated work as well.
There is likely structural issues in the US' economy and application process that could be driving this phenomena, beyond Indians are gaming the system or foreign workers are getting preference. Use some thought or you sound like a bumpkin from my hometown with a chip on their shoulder.
Money!
My final salary in the UK was £60,000; transitioning in the same role my first salary in the US was $120,000 — at the time a solid £75,000, i.e. 25% more. Yet my rent and other costs were more or less equal.
The ceiling also seems to be higher, but alas I can't be more informative about that.
We are developing AI to rival human ability. Its much easier if the people you are replacing are generally still learning rather than having years of experience and know how.
Actually why do they even bring people from overseas as everyone works from home dont they?
Obviously is because how do you get those wages back if you dont sell them houses and cars and big foam fingers and usa usa usa shirts lol.
I guess one day US and UK will flick the switch and say everyone is no longer needed. Easier if its a load of foreign workers.
So there are many reason why a person might/might not get hired. But one thing is certain, employers pay close attention to costs. STEM/IT workers, these days, are pretty much a commodity item. DOJ vs Facebook, Facebook receives hundreds of local resumes for every job IT they openly advertise. Of those hundreds, 30+ are better qualified than foreign workers undergoing the Green Card process (by Facebook's own admission to Federal Investigators). Still, the locals are turned away, the Green Card process is faked, so that it appears there is no one, local, who can actually do the job.
Companies can lie, all they want, to the Press and the Public, but they can't lie to U.S. Federal Investigators.
Another program, OPT, gives employers a 15% discount to hire a foreign worker. So we have to ask, to what extent is it a myth that foreign workers are better for a STEM job? When we don't put own own local STEM/IT students on the same competitive footing as foreign workers are given here in the U.S.?
The U.S. should extend the OPT tax credit to all students, even the unemployed. But will we? Not unless someone is willing to pay for it with bribes.
The Biden administration tabled the proposed change to allocate H-1b visas based upon salary. That change would have greatly helped the H-1b program, and made it more likely that highly skilled and vetted H-1b candidates only are using the program. The change was heavily opposed by external foreign interests, in the form of Offshore Outsourcing companies. And via their proxies, U.S. corporations, the Biden administration (which relies heavily on corporate campaign contributions) dropped the change.
Prediction: Despite all the talk, there will be no change to the current system, as it greatly benefits the Offshore Outsourcing of local U.S. jobs. Until we get a President that isn't will to sell U.S. jobs to the highest campaign bidders.
So there are many reason why a person might/might not get hired. But one thing is certain, employers pay close attention to costs. STEM/IT workers, these days, are pretty much a commodity item. DOJ vs Facebook, Facebook receives hundreds of local resumes for every job IT they openly advertise. Of those hundreds, 30+ are better qualified than foreign workers undergoing the Green Card process (by Facebook's own admission to Federal Investigators). Still, the locals are turned away, the Green Card process is faked, so that it appears there is no one, local, who can actually do the job.
Companies can lie, all they want, to the Press and the Public, but they can't lie to U.S. Federal Investigators.
Another program, OPT, gives employers a 15% discount to hire a foreign worker. So we have to ask, to what extent is it a myth that foreign workers are better for a STEM job? When we don't put own own local STEM/IT students on the same competitive footing as foreign workers are given here in the U.S.?
The U.S. should extend the OPT tax credit to all students, even the unemployed. But will we? Not unless someone is willing to pay for it with bribes.
The Biden administration tabled the proposed change to allocate H-1b visas based upon salary. That change would have greatly helped the H-1b program, and made it more likely that highly skilled and vetted H-1b candidates only are using the program. The change was heavily opposed by external foreign interests, in the form of Offshore Outsourcing companies. And via their proxies, U.S. corporations, the Biden administration (which relies heavily on corporate campaign contributions) dropped the change.
Prediction: Despite all the talk, there will be no change to the current system, as it greatly benefits the Offshore Outsourcing of local U.S. jobs. Until we get a President that isn't will to sell U.S. jobs to the highest campaign bidders.
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