This is the same story that started way back in ‘98 during dot com boom (golden era of IT ). Lot of pimps made good money during that time and some even bought BMW/Hummer etc…But I don’t see any difference between these pimps and companies like wipro/tcs/satyam/infy etc…both fall into same boat. Bodyshoppers !! Everyone wants damn $ $ $. And till actual hardworking programmer gets his greencard pimp will be making good $.

That is the reality of this whole H1B process !!

Did you read the entire article? Among other things, once the money is paid, the “agents” bring them to the US without pay forcing them to work at gas stations and jewelery kiosks in blatant violations of the terms of the H1B visa.
As far as I know wipro/tcs/satyam/infy will send you back if you run out of work.

As far as I know wipro/tcs/satyam/infy will send you back if you run out of work.

Not exactly. They put you up in a guest-house (i.e a shared apartment that the company leases) while they attempt to place you on another of their numerous projects throughout the country. See, the time and money they spend on a H1B visa is too much for them to send you back. And in most cases, it is not a problem for them to put you on a another project within a couple of weeks. You can legally stay on for a month after you stop working and in any case you are not working for the end client. You are going to be working for the Indian company. So there is no need to even app for a H1 “transfer” (which is actually a quota exempt fresh application).

Anantha,
Just out of curiousity, what do the H1B engineers do on this period when they’re on the bench? I guess my question would be is there anything illegal happening in that period.

what do the H1B engineers do on this period when they’re on the bench?

On the bench technically they are supposed to be paid by the company as in their H1B sponsors. But this rarely happens.

The entire problem is that the IRS and the USCIS records are kept separate, hence the “take your tax returns when you go for a H1B interview” thing. If they could cross reference that, so many people would go back to our motherland.

Also people are busy cramming for interviews (because they never knew their stuff in the first place) that I doubt they would have time to do something illegal (work outside).

People who fail to maintain their status and students who have a lot of free time are the ones who normally find jobs outside and get paid in cash.

As Karthik says, they cram. Sometimes they don’t cram too.

The entire problem is that the IRS and the USCIS records are kept separate

Bingo!

And if the period is more than a month….