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Report Indicates Widespread H-1B Visa Fraud
Vrst1013 notes a Business Week account of a government report examining fraud in the H-1B program. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services just released a report to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee examining issues with fraud and technical violations within this program. Based on a sample size of 246 H-1B petitions, 13.4 percent showed fraud and 7.3 percent showed technical violations, for an overall violation rate of 20.7 percent. There was slso evidence of payment below the prevailing wage, offers of non-existent jobs, and fraudulent documentation. "'The report makes it clear that the H-1B program is rife with abuse and misuse,' says Ron Hira, [a professor] at the Rochester Institute of Technology ... However, both Presidential candidates, Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain, have said they support expanding the program."
I'm continually amazed at the H1B visa issue.
Took me 5 min's to come up with a reasonable solution to the issues.
Original Problem: Some companies need skilled employee's that are not available in the US.
Created problems: Many companies like hiring folks from elsewhere because even with associated costs of the visa and transportation it's still a huge cost savings over paying US wages for the same work.
Solution: Have a relatively unlimited pool of available H1B visa's. With the provision that anyone hired must be paid 110% of the prevailing US wage for the work.
That way if they really need skills not available they can get them but there is a real financial incentive to use local talent.
Ward
Ward
. Silence! Be thankful thy species is unpalatable! .
I'm shocked, just shocked. In fact, I'm so shocked that a team of immigrants will be needed to pick my lower jaw up from the floor(no americans are available, I checked, really.).
Seriously though. I'm not opposed to immigration in itself, after all, one of the things that America has consistently gained from is being able to attract skilled and/or motivated people from all over(and, I can't ethically get behind the "America is the land of opportunity for anybody who immigrated before date X, after date X, all immigrants are damn dirty foreigners" type arguments). What I am opposed to is horrid compromise structures that don't work all that well, and provide huge incentives for fraud. If we want immigration, let's reform the process by which people can apply for and obtain legal residency and, ideally, eventually citizenship. If we don't, then let's be straightforward about forbidding it. A bullshit half measure where corporations get to import quasi-indentured labor who are on a sorta-kinda-not-really track to naturalization is the worst of both worlds. All the stuff about immigration that makes nativist labor types nervous, without the benefits of attracting and naturalizing the best, brightest, and most motivated.
Frankly I'm surprised ONLY 7.3% have technical violations. It is an extremely long, complex, and needless process that makes it easy to make mistakes at every step.
There have been books dedicated JUST to the process of US visa application forms, it really is that bad and can take up to or over six months.
I'm sure a lot of fraud goes on... But technical violations is more than likely just people struggling with the system.
So, you were going for a meta-dupe, by posting two messages about this article being a dupe? Dupe-squared? Or is it a super-dupe? A dupeé?
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
So many articles are coming out about the newly discovered h1b abuses, that you might think that, because everybody finally knows about the abuses, the problems will be fixed.
Sorry folks, but the abuses have been well know for nearly a decade.
September 2000
Silicon Valley Uses Immigrant Engineers to Keep Salaries
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/10-silicon-valley-uses-immigrant-engineers-to-keep-salaries/
2002
Enron and the H-1B American Worker Replacement Program
http://www.americanreformation.org/Articles/GlennJackson/EnronandH1BVisas.htm
February 2003
Is Anybody Out There? Is Anyone Listening?
http://www.rense.com/general35/wakeupNHwakeup.htm
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's not just the corporations who abuse H-1B visas. Virtually all, save a few, of the people brought over on them are useless.
I was at one company who employed fifteen of these people at one point. All of them were very misleading when describing their abilities and experience, and thus were virtually useless to us. If anything, they actually caused us more problems that they ever solved by the mere fact that the code they wrote was pure shit.
They were all from different universities and other academic institutions in India, so it's not like they were from a particularly bad school. Likewise, they were of different ages.
Our main problem was that many of them claimed to be familiar with Java development on Solaris, but the closest experience they actually had was VB.NET on Windows. Some of those fellows even had a cheat sheet translating common VB.NET constructs to Java (albeit incorrectly, in many cases). The others just pestered our North American and European developers with questions and problems that even an intern would be able to quickly solve on their own.
It's a great idea to bring the best and the brightest to America. It'll be great for our economy. The problem is, the existing programs bring over complete shit, who in turn harm our productivity terribly.
You mean to tell me that a government program meant to keep wages artificially inflated is being abused? I'm shocked! Corruption in government? Impossible!
Next you'll try to tell me that big companies influence government officials to get favorable copyright legislation.
Maybe not
People say there aren't enough skilled workers, but from what I can, there are too many people in the IT field. We posted for an opening and we had 40+ candidates in under a couple of hours. Many had little to no skills, but who's to say that I would get a better candidate from another country? Besides, if u keep hiring candidates from outside, then how will the non-experienced people that are in the US get the experience they need? We can't support the whole world by saying, come on down. I will get you a job because I don't want to pay the American worker so much money. Well, guess what, you can pay me 15K/yr, or 100K/yr. I still have to pay the same price for everday items that I NEED, forget what I WANT. So, how do I live on the poverty scale, when I went to school in hopes of making more money in the first place?
This video illustrates the problem perfectly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
both Presidential candidates
You mean Barr and Baldwin? To me, the rest don't matter anyway.
Anyone else having the issue where the H1B candidates that are interviewed (over the phone, natch) are not the same people that show up on the first day at work?
That's the new scam. The staffing companies specializing in the H1B candidates are using shills for the interviews.
What reasonable justification does the US government have for denying foreigners the same opportunities that American citizens have?
Other countries also deny or restrict foreigners working within their borders. Why should the U.S. be any different? Even to work in Mexico, a U.S. worker has to obtain a work visa, even if only to work in the Mexican office of a U.S. owned company that happens to be a few hundred yards over the border for one day.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
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Perhaps they should manage this like the auto CAFE standard. They could call it Corporate Average Salary of H1B or C.A.S.H for short. I figure they can set an average salary of say $120,000 as these are supposed to be high demand positions. Put say a 5% or so increase a year for inflation as well. Any company not meeting the average will be fined.
With this I could foresee companies trying to sabotage their competitors by wooing their top salaried H1B's and ruining their average. Win for H1B's. Not sure if a limit on how many H1B's would be required with this in place.
I was going to mod you up, but I'll comment instead so people understand.
A big part of the problem with the H1B program is that the visas are tied to one employer. A foreigner comes over to work, finds out the job is crappy, and is stuck in the job. She can't find a better job with better pay or better hours. She either works to the end of the visa, or goes back to her country early.
A big improvement to the program would be to cut this tie. Employers would have to compete for H1B workers, just like they have to compete for American workers. This will raise the wages of H1B workers, which will make H1B workers *less* desirable over American workers.
There would be less H1Bs, and the ones that remained would be skilled workers whose skills are genuinely needed.
In summary, better treatment for H1B workers will lead to better wages and more jobs for American workers.
If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
Good. It's nice to hear there is a fly in that ointment.
If this country is to build up the number of technical people, it needs to pay them. Companies like Microsoft complain there aren't enough skilled people but by abusing the H1B program, they depress the pay scale, they take jobs away from qualified (but more expensive) Americans, etc.
And with a 20% fraud rate, the H1B program needs an overhaul.
If you do a good job, communicate well, and are well rounded you should never have to worry about a job.
Ah, yes, I was once naive like that too and said much the same thing about others who were losing their jobs. I thought that there would always be jobs for the top 10% of their engineering class, the ones whose managers praised them. The ones who were so adaptable they could learn a new language or environment over a weekend. But I was naive and I, too, was replaced by cheap H1B labor.
Take my advice. Learn to live on a third of your income. Then it will not hurt so bad when it happens to you.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
The tip I was told by a headhunter years ago is to expect to be out of work 1 month for every $10K in salary if the economy is bad (and it's still true, especially so if you adjust for inflation, it was in 1995 dollars originally). So you better have enough in liquid assets to cover that many months without a wage if you don't want to be slinging burgers while you look.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Since June of this year, I've seen this several times. Back in June of this year my company had three extremely talented full-time developers do a phone interview on an H1B candidate; the guy passed with flying colors... Once the guy started I didn't see him getting much work done and was always really quiet; I sat right next to him. I find this guy was given simpler and simpler tasks that he couldn't complete and the final straw was that he was asked to write a stored procedure and couldn't do it. He was even called out on the fact that he wasn't the same person in the phone interview; of course he denied it. He was terminated shortly thereafter. He was a subcontractor via another company; the company that placed him there was duped into thinking he had skills when in fact he didn't. I've also had the pleasure (if you want to call it that) of reviewing some of these "skilled candidates" resumes only to find out when it comes down to the technical (in-person) interview they don't know sh*t when they passed a phone skills-test with flying colors.
To be honest I go to work and am in IT because I love what I do. It pisses me off to see people try to fake their way into it for either a green-card or because there is "money" here. These posers who actually make it through the screening process get into companies and cause a big mess for people like me to clean up. Even worse are some who get into management without the slightest inclining of how some of the technology is supposed to work and in return what do they do is bring in more H1B's who don't get IT.
The government should impose some sort of punishment on companies and/or the individuals that take advantage of the system and really the entire H1B process needs to be overhauled. Maybe I should start calling Immigration and reporting these people and companies who are trying to screw over the rest of us who are legitimately trying to make a living in this economy.
I also hold an H-1B, although I'm a Canadian citizen.
Here are two other problems:
1. No medical checks until the very end of the (optional) green card process. Presumably, an employee running around with TB could be spreading it for years without knowing who it was. Bad for US citizens and lawful aliens. A medical exam should be completed prior to entry into the country.
2. Lack of grace period upon job loss. I'm expected to leave in 10 days flat. If you have an apartment full of stuff, it's kinda tough to pull it all together in that timeframe, lest the BCIS agents come to take you away.
3. Lack of typical state benefits upon job loss. If I lose my job, I pay into unemployment but I'm not allowed to collect even to get back what I paid in. Furthermore, I can't collect unemployment from my home country. That means I need to stash money away for that contingency that I could've used elsewhere.
The solution is an indexed and independently audited visa system whereby visa holders get a provisional permanent green card pending medical, educational and experience qualifications at a rate that doesn't exceed the displacement of professionals already in the country above NAIRU, applicant-funded with additional funds set aside automatically for otherwise standard benefits of a citizen. This is the problem that Canada has in dumping a bunch of people from other countries into the workforce where there are already too few tech jobs (although Canada's bigger problem is where professionals can't be credentialed and end up having a worse standard of living than back in their home country driving a taxi).
A degree in engineering is good. Engineering as a practice doesn't change a great deal -- technologies and techniques change and improve, but the basics will always apply. The same cannot be said of IT, however. It is a very moving target and closely linked to the technology and even vendor of choice. The basics of computer systems and principles are arguably the same, but people aren't taught that and aren't learning that... even in degree programs.
There is more to being a doctor or a lawyer or even an engineer than merely getting a degree. There are also professional associations and boards regulating their practices and credentials. So far, IT has managed without such professional structure, but the abuses we see are just screaming for it. The workplace is still teeming with people who responded to TV commercials promising "hot careers in technology."
Ultimately, aptitude, skill and talent need to become more measurable. There are too many people out there trying to make IT workers into assembly-line workers... but then again, I just called the classification "IT workers" and not "IT professionals" didn't I? Perhaps it could all start with names/titles.
Why are you upset about the difficult H-1B to immigrant policy? H-1B is not an immigration visa nor is it a path to citizenship. There are other programs for that. You enrolled in a non-immigrant program that wasn't designed to be a foothold for citizenship and now are complaining that the path to citizenship is difficult?
If the skilled worker program needs to be changed, then so be it. But at the moment, it was designed as a time-limited work visa and isn't advertised by the government as a way to attain citizenship. If your employer indicated otherwise, then you were duped. If you hoped otherwise, then it's unfortunate for you. It doesn't mean you should be indignant about it.
That's actually the opposite of what many of us want. How about: just stop letting people immigrate into the U.S. as glorified indentured servants.
I've said it before: I'd love to have open borders for technical talent. I'm willing to compete with anyone in the world on technical ability. And, if they're better than me I guess I'll just have a chance to work for them when they start their own companies.
However, I don't want to take part in a race to the bottom of wages and benefits. And, that's what H1-B and similar programs are designed to do.
Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud.
Actually, I'd rather let them come here and get a green card instead of a visa. That way they can move about and not be tied to a company. They would be free to leave if they did not feel they were getting a fair deal.
I find it ironic that the companies complain about a shortage and then support a program that eventually ships all this talent back out of the country. It goes to show that they are not concerned about the "talent". Their definition of a shortage is "we can't find any experienced programmers to work in San Jose for $15 an hour".
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
open borders are different than these visa programs, because with an open border there is no implied threat over people's heads that if they ask for fair wages they could get fired and therefore sent home. The wiki entry for H1-B isn't very clear as to whether this has changed, but it sounds like switching firms while on such a visa is at the discretion of both firms.