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Microsoft & Intel Get a Pass On Higher H-1B Fees
theodp writes "Criticizing companies that outsource high-paying American jobs, Senator Charles Schumer described Indian IT company Infosys as a 'chop shop'. (Nine Indian companies accounted for 20,000 H-1B visas as of 2007. In 2008, Infosys held 4,500 of the visas; the number was down by a factor of 10 in 2009.) The comments came as the Senate scrambled to fund the $600M Mexican Border Security Bill by hiking application fees for H-1B and L-1 visas. The Senate measure increases H-1B visa fees by $2,000 per application on firms that have 50% or more of their employees on this visa. Schumer pointed out that the bill would not affect high-tech companies such as Intel or Microsoft 'that play by the rules and recruit workers in America,' although they are among the biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B program."
Every Infosys site I have been on has been 99% India citizen staffed. When they go back to their country for personal reason like marriage or death another one flies over and takes their place. Maybe 2% of US citizens is all I have ever seen in any department run by them.
Talk about Cliques
Nothing new about that.
American Third Position
Finally, a real choice!
Um, the "chop shops" bring in people from India at 35k/yr. The fee should be raised to 10k/yr and all proceeds should go towards expanding IT training programs at Colleges and Universities.
Because legal immigrants benefit more than citizens from a reduction in illegal immigration.
But of course that isn't the real reason, it's two birds with one stone - both legal and illegal immigration get punished a little since the person whose vote this is aimed at getting isn't anti-illegal immigration, they are anti-immigration (well maybe just anti-non-white-immigration in truth).
Why does everyone assume all H1B visas are for cheap labour displacing qualified American workers? People like me who study at American universities on student visas, compete against American students and are hired at the same wages as American workers also transition to H1B visas when starting work. Intel, MS, Google etc have a LOT of these. Indeed, the stereotypical "cheap H1B workers" at these places are often contractors brought in by other companies.