Santosh, isn’t there a separate quota of ~20,000 visas for people with a graduate degree from a US university?

Ash,
Excellent point. But my point still remains that people with 4 year degrees or higher qualifications are affected by these underhanded dealings conducted by desi consultants.

Hi, how do these candidates with 3 years of education from ‘hole in the wall’ institutions get job offers in the US? I thought to apply for an H1B visa you need a job offer in hand?

In case they’re competing for the same job with a US university graduate before applying for the H1B, then the competition is fair and square, isnt it?

Raccoon,
3 year degree + 3 years work experience is equivalent to a 4 year US degree. A 4 year US degree or equivalent is the minimum requirement for a H1B. Did you read any of the links in that post especially the Scaling New Heights Blog? Some students with 3 year degrees and no work experience are faking their resumes, at the advice of desi consultants and getting jobs intended for folks with 4 year degrees or the equivalent. I don’t have anything against the folks with 3 year degrees as long as they have the requisite work experience. But if they’re screwing the system and impacting more qualified candidates I have a problem with that.

Well, misrepresentation of facts can happen anywhere.

It happens with many Indian applicants to US universities who misrepresent facts in their applications when it comes to work experience or extra-curriculars or even their academics.

I would be very surprised if MANY such 3yr guys got off with misrepresentation and got jobs - because that would be a huge scandal if unearthed. Are’nt the employers diligent enough to do background checks? They could easily employ Kroll to do a fairly quick background check for work experience - in this day and age if someone gets duped because of lack of information, I’d lay the blame at the employer’s doorstep. I would think that misrepresenting and getting into a university was easy - but not in a job.

However I seriously dont think this number of 3 year education applicants would be high enough to screw chances en masse for the genuine guys.
Of course, even one candidate lying and getting a job means one person with a US education/4 yr education suffers and that is something that the employers have to be diligent about - I would personally easily spot a guy who had no work experience within a week of his working in my office. So have many such guys really gotten jobs or is it just hearsay (which would amount to exaggeration)? Going over to read some links now.

ok, I just read the link - so they’re getting false paycheques from the consultants to show that they have employment? So they’re not really getting employed by genuine companies, are they?

1. They’re not “misrepresenting facts” as you claim, they’re lying through their teeth. Again I’m not claiming everyone does that but its more common than anyone wants to admit and an open secret in the community.

2. This “misrepresenting facts” as you put it is a felony, punishable with jail time and deportation. It is not like cheating in exams where the worst that happens is you get expelled. Cheating in exams happens on a large scale too but that doesnt make it right.

3. Ok. They’re not getting employed by genuine companies. The paycheck was never the issue, the visa quota was. They are simply “visa squatting” taking away the priviledge of work from more qualified applicants for whom the visa was intended in the first place.

4. The “employers” here are not the American companies but the desi consultants. And they’re not being diligent, in fact they are abetting this crime. Whopee, big surprise there.

I don’t see how you can bring yourself to defend any of these practices.

heck, didnt defent any of these practices…of course its criminal. I was just trying to understand what all the hullabulloo was all about - I assume there are many people doing this in order to get the visas.

I still think that an american employer whos sponsoring the h1b would be stupid to get a candidate with 0 experience and false experiences without doing a proper background check. Or else, this guy would get fired within a week of joining, and get repatriated back.

I assume there are many people doing this in order to get the visas.

That is exactly what the hullabulloo is about. So many unqualified people are doing it, it affects the folks who are qualified. Also I understand what you’re saying when you say its the American companies responsiblity.
Just to give you a background, in most cases this is how it works: desi consultant contacts you, encourages you to make a fake resume with 5 years of job experience, gets a visa in your name, submits the same fake resume to a client when submitting a proposal, tries to get you in with the client for 5-6 months, takes 50% or more of your paycheck, promises to do your green card and never ends up doing it.
I agree with you in that the client should probably screen them with background checks but how do you run a background check on someone who claims most of his/her experience is not in the US?
Maybe I should’ve elaborated all this in my post but I thought the Scaling New Heights Blog did a great job of that.
Nice discussion though.

Santosh: I think I can add more to this discussion, cos I was “almost” in this situation. I got out before the situation got out of my hand.

Are’nt the employers diligent enough to do background checks?

Ya they are, only if you applying for a full time employee position. But in most cases, these employers employ contractors. So Employer E gets consulting company C1 to send them a few resumes to interview. C1 posts requirements on a job forum like Dice.com. Desi consultant company DC1 sees that and submits a few resumes to C1 who interviews the candidates and sends the most “qualified” (we know what that means!) to E. Now E only interviews. E’s expectation is that the background checks are done by C1 who in turn expects DC1 to do it since the candidate is actually on DC1’s payroll. So the onus is on DC1. Funniest thing is, the time frame for the whole process is so compressed that a typical question posed to the candidate is “So, can you start tomorrow or the day after?”. And most contractor openings typically get filled two or three days after the need becomes public. That’s one of the positives that employers gain by subcontracting work. They don’t have to worry about overheads like background checks et. al. And that is the same “positive” that gets exploited by the DC’s.
I would personally easily spot a guy who had no work experience within a week of his working in my office.
Well, a lot of times what you say, happens within a day or two. So what happens if the candidate is not up to the mark? He just gets fired (from the contractor position) and the whole process starts again. I have known people who have been fired from multiple positions within a day or two after joining.
See, the whole thing works on a “honor” system and sense of personal rapport between the HR guys in these places. Now if E thinks that C1 has been sending them bad candidates, C1 will be blackballed. In turn, C1 will blackball DC1 if they send bad candidates continually.
So sometimes what happens is that, if DC1 thinks that a candidate lacks skills, they put him in a position in a company where they have another skilled employee already present. So this skilled employee helps the raw candidate brush up his skills in the work environment. And anytime the raw guy is in a bind with some deliverable, the skilled guy helps him out. Slowly the raw guy polishes his skills, on the job training, if you please!

Santosh:

I agree with you in that the client should probably screen them with background checks but how do you run a background check on someone who claims most of his/her experience is not in the US?

The thing is, sometimes the experience on the resume is still US bases. And the references checks are over-rated. All that people sometimes do is have friends pose as references. Heck, I have seen people get interviewed (on the phone) as someone else!

I meant to say, “US based”. Typos galore this morning!

Santosh: takes 50% or more of your paycheck, promises to do your green card and never ends up doing it.

I think these cases are marginal and happen only if the candidate is naive. I mean, there are a few bad apples, but I think overall the employees get leverage after a year or so of sticking with the same company. I know some DCs that start paying freshie salaries to freshies (while the “billing rate” is much more). But once the freshie stays with the same company for a year or so and gets to know the business, they are forced to go on percentage basis (80 percent for the employee and 20 percent for the DC or something) lest the employee is poached away by other companies or even by the client. You might wonder about background checks at this point, but sometimes the personal rapport that the candidate gets with his client manager is enough for them to dispense with such formalities.