H1-B Administrators Are Challenging An Unusually Large Number of Applications (bloomberg.com)

Long-time Slashdot reader decaffeinated quotes Bloomberg: Starting this summer, employers began noticing that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications. Cases that would have sailed through the approval process in earlier years ground to a halt under requests for new paperwork. The number of challenges -- officially known as "requests for evidence" or RFEs -- are up 44 percent compared to last year, according to statistics from USCIS...

"We're entering a new era," said Emily Neumann, an immigration lawyer in Houston who has been practicing for 12 years. "There's a lot more questioning, it's very burdensome." She said in past years she's counted on 90 percent of her petitions being approved by Oct. 1 in years past. This year, only 20 percent of the applications have been processed. Neumann predicts she'll still have many unresolved cases by the time next year's lottery happens in April 2018.

Comments

The H1B visa program is used as cheap labor.

[Anonymous Coward]

The H1B visa program is used intentionally as cheap labor to replace the American worker under the guise of 'we just can't find anyone skilled local'.

It's more about finding a worker who will work for 1/3rd the salary.

Re:The H1B visa program is used as cheap labor.

[sjames]

Sadly, that is true. TFA is just people crying that they are actually being held to the stated intent and requirements of the H1-B program for the first time in well over a decade. Enforcement has been so lax that the people quoted in the story seem to have actually forgotten that being unable to find someone with the needed skills in the U.S. is a hard requirement for hiring an H1-B.

If the full quota isn't being handed out, perhaps it's because there is no actual shortage and so there aren't that many qualifying applications out there. Perhaps they should take a second look at the applicants who were over 40 years old or otherwise seemed like they might insist on only working the hours they were paid for that they threw in the round file. They could try actually offering pay on par with the industry. Perhaps they could offer a better work environment, easier hours, or telecommute if they can't afford higher pay. They could offer training or scholorship programs, co-op, etc. They could even consider (God forbid) not insisting on having their offices in the most expensive places in the country.

Maybe just toss the H-1B program completely?

[Anonymous Coward]

H-1B visa abuse is pretty commonplace. Even B-1 visa abuse is commonplace where people from offshore wind up working here in the US for 90-180 days, then get rotated out, and another batch of people from Kerala or Bangalore moved in. The fines for that are so cheap that it is written off as a cost of doing business.

The problem is that there are many tax incentives to abuse the visa system. For example, I can pay the payroll tax for 20 FTEs, or I can pay some contracting firm that hauls in people fresh off the boat, and don't have to pay a dime. As an added bonus, I can tell them to punt someone I don't like because I feel like it, and the contracting place removes them. No separation, no work on my side other than locking some accounts. Plus, I don't have to worry about HR and interviews.

So, until the system is fixed that encourages outsourcing to H-1B abusing contract firms, we will see this shit continuing. The H-1B program needs to be tossed, or modified where for every dollar paid for an H-1B, another dollar gets paid to the US government earmarked for education, with a minimum salary of five times the median income.

Re:Even a stopped clock...

[DNS-and-BIND]

Oh the good old DATS WACIST defense! Haven't seen that one in a while. Maybe, just maybe, we've been getting ripped off by the H1B program for a long time and now it's coming to a screeching halt.

You know the likely result of this? "Oh crap, we need to hire more Americans!" followed shortly by "damn we need to invest in and train our people, hiring is too expensive these days!"

Plenty of abuse

[lfp98]

Probably the paperwork requirements are just BS, but simply putting obstacles in the path and making it more of a hassle to get these visas actually makes sense. In principle, you have to try to recruit US citizens first, but there are ways around that requirement. For example, you advertise an entry-level job with a low salary, reject applicants for not having some very specific job experience or skills, then hire a highly experienced overqualified foreigner at the same low salary. I'd be very surprised if it weren't true the in a majority of cases, H1-B holders were sought because they're younger and cheaper, not because they have special skills. What the government really ought to do is have an auction for these visas instead of a lottery, If Google, Microsoft et al. really need these people, they shouldn't mind paying $100,000 or more bounty to get them. Use the money to fund scholarships for US students in fields where there are supposedly such dire shortages, instead of saddling them with $100,000 of student debt.

Re:Looks like it is true

[RightwingNutjob]

H1B shouldn't be a lottery. It should be an auction. Then you'd just bid a salary without the the red tape you may not mind but that still costs taxpayer money. If someone wants to outbid you on a half-literate code monkey, that's their prerogative and their loss. Abuse goes away. Artificial wage depression goes away. A fixed number of slots that you can bid on makes the thing merit-based on its own and keeps the loonies quiet about letting in too many people who don't come from our culture.

Re: Trump/Bannon economic nationalism is anti-capi

[sycodon]

That's not what he said. They need to follow the process and meet the requirements.

What we have are companies claiming they can't find qualified people, then bring in people that are equally as unqualified, but measurably cheaper.

if you are going to have rules, fucking enforce them.