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Employers: There is a shortage of good tech qorkers. Give us more H1 visas so we can get the work done.

Employees: These darn foreigners are taking our jobs! They work for much less than us people born in Amerika! (studys show about $13,000 less http://www.workpermit.com/news... )

The simplest solution is of course to offer unlimited H1 Visas - at the cost of $15,000, paid by the corporation, before the employee is hired.. (with inflation adjustments so this doesn't become abused).

This solves all real claims of not enough tech workers, it reduces the US budget, and gets rid of the financial incentive to refuse to hire perfectly good American tech workers.

http://www.workpermit.com/news/2005_10_26/us/us_h1b_visa_holders_earn_less.htm

It's not about skill.

It's about

"A recent report suggests that US employers are using the H-1B visa program to pay lower wages than the national average for programming jobs.

According to "The Bottom of the Pay Scale: Wages for H-1B Computer Programmers â" F.Y. 2004," a report by Programmers Guild board member John Miano, non-U.S. citizens working in the United States on an H-1B visa are paid "significantly less than their American counterparts."

How much less? "On average, applications for H-1B workers in computer occupations were for wages $13,000 less than Americans in the same occupation and state.""

Companies make a LIVING teaching other companies how to advertise and interview to avoid hiring qualified u.s. citizens (some of whom are the same birthplace as the H-1B's but who have the misfortune to be a citizen). (easy to find on Youtube btw- one of the seminars where they were bluntly talking about how to disqualify citizens).

This professor hit the nail on the head, what American would want to work in technology after this video from US attorneys explaining how NOT to hire Americans for IT jobs? Here's the full video. And how much jail time did these attorneys get for sending millions of jobs overseas? None.

This is why I left CS. Videos like this and the job market full of fake job ads with fake software you MUST know how to use in order to be hired because companies have to run XX# of job ads in order to get H-1B visas to hire foreign workers. Couldn't find an IT American that knows Windows 10.3 and Microsoft Office Turbo Edition? Then here's your H1B visa's, hire some foreign programmers.

I went back to school and now I'm in the medical field, hopefully they don't start giving visas out to doctors.... aw crap

Relative to the American system, it's pretty standardized and easy to understand: http://www.workpermit.com/canada/points_calculator.htm.

So a combination of: Speak English, have at least a two-year degree (note Canada distinguishes college diploma vs. university degree), have worked for a year, have a job offer, and younger than 52 and you're set. Other combinations work.

Oh, and you can't be a convict (this includes things that are civil matters in the US but criminal matters in Canada). And no pre-existing conditions in your immediate family.

It's not just HR departments who value degrees. Immigration departments do too.

http://www.workpermit.com/australia/general-skilled-migration/points_requirements.htm

quote: "Doctorate degree with min. 2 consecutive years of full-time study while present in Australia 25 [points]"

Or: http://www.workpermit.com/canada/points_calculator.htm

So degrees certainly have value.

Anyway, it is true that if you want education you can use the Web - even Youtube has plenty of lecture videos from MIT, Stanford and various other universities (Indian ones included).

However, if you want a degree from say MIT you're still going to have to give them a lot of money, unless they give you an honorary one for free ;).

It's not just HR departments who value degrees. Immigration departments do too.

http://www.workpermit.com/australia/general-skilled-migration/points_requirements.htm

quote: "Doctorate degree with min. 2 consecutive years of full-time study while present in Australia 25 [points]"

Or: http://www.workpermit.com/canada/points_calculator.htm

So degrees certainly have value.

Anyway, it is true that if you want education you can use the Web - even Youtube has plenty of lecture videos from MIT, Stanford and various other universities (Indian ones included).

However, if you want a degree from say MIT you're still going to have to give them a lot of money, unless they give you an honorary one for free ;).

New Zealanders

And people wonder why the US likes to check and double check who's comming into the country? "A security van carrying blank visas and passports was hijacked near Manchester in north England at 6:40 a.m. Monday, 28 July 2008. At least 3,000 blank passports and visa stickers in 24 brown cardboard boxes - intended for distribution to embassies and consulates abroad - were stolen." Ref: http://www.workpermit.com/news/2008-07-30/uk/blank-e-passport-visa-theft-england.htm

You should take a look at the UK's Tier 1 (General) program. It's a points based system. Denmark has something similar.

I migrated from the LA to London 2 1/2 years ago under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, which, if you qualify, is a very good way to enter the job market in the UK. You earn points based on your education level, number of years graduate (post university) working experience, salary, and other factors (bonus points for being young, an MD, or MBA from a top 50 school).

Once you get it, you can enter the UK without a job, look for a job for up to a year and switch employers at any time. Work permits are also possible but are much more restrictive since you need employer sponsorship, they need to "prove" that no one local could have done the job and to change employers requires a new work permit.

There are a number of good IT job sites in the uk (http://jobserve.com, http://monster.co.uk/ http://jobsite.co.uk/ http://progressive.co.uk/ etc...). I applied to many and got very few responses until I put down a friend's address and phone number in England. I was then able to get some telephone interviews, but didn't get a final job offer until after I moved over. Even though I was fortunate to get a job offer relatively quickly, I didn't start work for almost a month and a half, and didn't get paid for over 2 months (salaried payment in the UK is almost always monthly, often in arrears, which takes a bit to get used to). Contract work is also an option.

A very good website for the HSMP and UK immigration in general is http://www.immigrationboards.com/ a free discussion board, part of http://www.workpermit.com/ a worldwide immigration service (which I didn't use but might be an option for you).

Best of luck!

Does this help at all? Physicians have been able to practice on the H-1B since 1990. Check out Miscellaneous Technical Immigration and Naturalization Amendments, 1991.

According to this page, there are "undertakings, enforceable by heavy civil and criminal penalties," among which are:

# To pay the H1B worker at least the higher of the wage paid to similar workers in the same company or the "prevailing wage" (usually determined by the relevant State Employment Services Agency) for the occupation in the area the worker will be employed;

# That the recruitment of the H1B worker(s) will not adversely affect the conditions of the employer's US-resident employees in similar jobs;

Now.. if this is truly the case, if H1B visa workers really are being paid less then their US-resident counterparts, then that is a clear cut violation is it not? Has anybody tried to enforce these rules?