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Visas for skilled workers may jump
Submitted by administrator on Mon, 05/21/2007 - 11:21.
By KRISTIN COLLINS
Raleigh News & Observer
Monday, May 21, 2007
Talk of immigration reform often centers on the fate of field hands and hotel maids, but the future facing engineers, computer programmers and statisticians also hangs in the balance.
With a shortage of American workers in some fields, highly skilled foreign workers are important to the U.S. economy, but immigration restrictions have hamstrung many companies who want to bring them in.
"The problems of the immigration system are not limited to the undocumented workers," said Laura Edgerton, head of the North Carolina Immigration Lawyers Association. "This is also about advanced-degree professionals, people that could help our economy but are being shut out."
The Senate's proposed immigration bill, scheduled to be debated this week, would open the nation's door wider for skilled workers. Under the bill, the annual number of visas for workers with advanced degrees would grow from the current 65,000 to 115,000.
Business advocates favor the increase, but they say it is not enough to ensure that all foreign workers who are in demand are able to get a visa. They add that the Senate bill will not ease the backlog of applications that plagues those who want to work in the United States permanently.
The visas for highly educated foreigners, known as H-1B visas, have become increasingly difficult to get. Businesses can begin applying on behalf of the workers they hope to hire in April of each year. In 2006, all the slots were taken by May. This year, the government received 130,000 petitions -- twice the number of available visas -- on the first day.
It used a random lottery to choose those who would get a visa.
Mike Plueddemann, director of human resources at DynPro, an information technology consulting company with an office in Durham, N.C., said that eight of the 29 visas he requested were denied. Those rejected were the most skilled, experienced candidates, he said.
"It's just pure, random luck," Plueddemann said.
Officials at several North Carolina companies said they would rather fill the jobs with U.S. citizens and avoid the hassle of visas, which take hours of paperwork and cost more than $2,000 each. But they say that in a time of economic prosperity, when many high-tech industries are expanding and baby boomers are retiring, they can't find enough American workers. So they look to places such as India and China, which are producing engineers more quickly than the United States.
Immigration advocates said that when U.S. businesses cannot hire the foreign workers they need, they create jobs in other countries instead. DynPro, for example, has offices in India.
Ushma Mehta, 22, is a graduate student in computer engineering at North Carolina State University. When she graduates in December, she will be one of those staking her hopes on the H-1B visa. She said she wants to work in the United States, but if she doesn't get the visa, she'll return to India and take one of the many high-tech jobs that are being sent there.
"I'd still be happy," said Mehta, who is completing a master's degree in only a year and a half.
But even if Mehta gets the visa, that doesn't assure her the permanent right to work in the United States. The visa lasts three years and is often extended for another three. After that, foreign workers need "green cards," which indicate they have become lawful permanent residents.
Sanjay Lulla, a computer programmer and analyst at DynPro who is from India, said he will finally get a green card this year, after four years of waiting. During that time, he was unable to change jobs, because his visa is sponsored by his employer.
He said that the endless delays and restrictions are so frustrating that they have driven many of his friends back to India or to Canada, where the process is simpler.
(Kristin Collins can be reached at kristin.Collins(at)newsobserver.com Staff writer Sabine Vollmer contributed to this report.)
H-1b lies - propaganda
Yet another one-sided biased report!
go to
www.aea.org
www.toraw.org
www.programmersguild.org
www.techsunite.org
www.unitedprofessionals.org
www.h1b.info
www.zazona.com
for the REAL STORY
It is all about cheap labor!!!!
skilled professionals being shut out
Yes, it is terrible that highly-skilled, well-educated American professionals have been shut out by this severe excess of student and guest-work and permanent visas.
http://www.kermitrose.com/econ.html#Summary
Stay away from engineering -tech
For all of you American students thinking of a career in science-technology-Engineering
Forget get it
Korporate Amerika (USA, Inc.) wants it fill of cheap foreign labor.
Better to become an immigration attorney processing H-1b applications. There's a better future in for you!
Visas for skilled workers may jump
Wow, it sure is terrible that DYNPRO (Durham, NC) was unable to destroy all 29 jobs in the U.S. -- we all know, because journalists take imigration lawyers and lobbyists statements as fact, that career destruction is good for our economy.
For 2005 - 2006, the H-1B LCA database shows that DYNPRO paid an average salary of $46,229.60 on 30 of 31 H-1B LCAs.
The Job titles:
COMPUTER PROGRAMMER
COMPUTER PROGRAMMER 1
COMPUTER PROGRAMMER 2
COMPUTER SYSTEMS ANALYST
COMPUTER SYSTEMS ANALYST 1
Management Analyst 1
Market Research Analyst
MARKET RESEARCH ANALYST I
PROGRAMMER ANALYST
Programmer Analyst 1
PROGRAMMER ANALYST II
SOFTWARE ENGINEER-APPLICATIONS
The 31st H-1B LCA (COMPUTER SYSTEMS ANALYST 40.98/hour) was not included in this average because it is not a salaried offer and full-time hours not guaranteed. http://beta.h1b.info
Moreover, the AeA cyberstates report shows us that ZERO Americans participated in High-Tech job growth from 2001 - 2006.
http://immigration-weaver.blogspot.com/2007/04/simple-analysis-of-aea-cyberstates.html
Americans are not offered these below market jobs because we are not captive to EB greencard wage depression tactics. There's your labor shortage!
The Unheard Story
Every post I've read on the many websites analyzing the H-1B issue today have unfairly claimed that the visa program is a vehicle for cheap labor and a quick entry into the unemployment line for Americans. I am a Canadian citizen who has attended an ivy league college for the last 4 years. I have a job working in finance in New york next year and I might be kicked out of a country I have called my home for the last 4 years. I am working in New York because I am the best for the job, not because I can be paid less than my peers. All of you are espousing the protectionist jargon and rubric that worked to keep free trade locked up for the better half of a century. Go read an economics text book. seriously. Your protectionism is ruining my life. Unemployment is pretty much at an all time low and the economy is booming. Don't close the door on people like me who want to call America our home.
re: The unheard story
Response to Batman:
The protectionism that is occurring is in the computer-related occupations, where for 2001 - 2005, 41.7% of all H-1B approvals went to an industry that is 3.09% of the 2005 BLS Payroll Survey. This protectionism, attempts to protect the maturing High-Tech industries from foreign incursion, by hiring as many fresh foreign graduates as possible to push labor costs down.
Furthermore, your industry, finance, has not yet been fully attacked by CompeteAmerica and the American Immigration Lawyers Association as has the computer-related sector. You will know when this happens because these lawyers will do and say just about anything to protect the H-1B market that generates income figure like the following:
Attorneys fees H-1B Initial Applications: $2,810.00
2002 $307,908,560.00
2003 $304,958,060.00
2004 $459,572,690.00
2005 $330,276,160.00
These attorneys are looking for more visas and the computer-related occupations sector is saturated, what makes you think that "finance" won't be the next target for labor arbitrage?
So, Batman's solution is that American's should ignore the over-subscription (which in reality caused him to miss his H-1B)so he can sign up to be tied to an employer for 3 to 6 years on H-1B and then spend another 5 years servitude on EB visa LPR status.
Wouldn't it be better to sponsor yourself on EB2 or EB3 visa and not be tied to an employer? Dude, you are promoting indentured labor status for yourself!
I'd suggest that Batman review some traditional economics, it's the free movement of capital that creates wealth, not "the free movement of human capital."
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