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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! .
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.