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The Great H1B Gold Rush (Update)

By: Santosh :+: Under: Business, Opinion
On: ⋅ April 4, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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Update: The H1B quota for this year was exceeded less than 48 hours after it opened up. So now, instead of allowing the most brilliant and qualified technology professionals to work and live in the United States, the H1B visa has morphed into a game of chance and timing.

USCIS reportedly received a record number of H-1B filings – 150,000 as of the afternoon of Monday, April 2, far in excess of available numbers. Therefore, a significant percentage of filed cases will not be selected in the lottery.

Or at least that’s what it’s turned into. Ever since the US came up with the arbitrary cap of 85,000 H1B visas, every year the “window of time” to apply for an H1B visa seems to shrink. This year, it opens up today (April 2nd 2007). Of the 85,000 visas, 20,000 are reserved for students who have a Masters or PhD from an US University. For those working with higher learning, government or non-profits, there is a separate quota. Everyone else falls under the 65,000 or so visas that have been allocated by the powers-that-be. Immigrant communities are rife with stories of individuals being unable to “make the deadline” because of technical reasons - what if you got a job offer after the deadline? Too bad says the Government. If a high-tech worker is unable to make this deadline, consequently the worker ends up with no work permit and has to leave the country.

The high-tech industry makes a case for increasing the number of visas.

“You’re going to start losing your edge compared to 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 quickly” he said.

Critics of the H1B program, argue that H1B workers work at a lower wage and end up taking jobs away from equally qualified American workers and that the H1B program is being dominated by the bigger Indian firms (Infosys, TCS, etc). 44% of H1B visas go to people from India, China being the 2nd highest at 9%.

However, unemployed tech workers and grassroots-level organisations assert there are enough talented American workers ready to fill those slots - but they’re not willing to accept the lower wages that companies can pay immigrants, ‘The San Jose Mercury News’ reported.
“The PR people are preying on Americans’ fear,” Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California, who is critical of H-1B visas, said on the tech industry’s purported concern about the loss of innovation.

Caught in between these two parties are international students and professionals who dont belong to the top 3-5 Indian companies, who dont have the benefit of experience in the case of some or the buying and legal resources of a multi-national to bulldoze their way through the visa process. As the “H1B window” opens and shuts, thousands of qualified technology workers are left to fend for themselves and their “American Dreams”.

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