Trump Administration Cracks Down On H-1B Visa Abuse (cnn.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN Money: The Trump administration is cracking down on companies that get visas for foreign workers and farm them out to employers. Some staffing agencies seek hard-to-get H-1B visas for high-skilled workers, only to contract them out to other companies. There's nothing inherently illegal about contracting out visa recipients, but the workers are supposed to maintain a relationship with their employers, among other requirements. In some cases, outsourcing firms flood the system with applicants. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency said in a new policy memo released Thursday it will require more information about H-1B workers' employment to ensure the workers are doing what they were hired for. Companies will have to provide specific work assignments, including dates and locations, to verify the "employer-employee" relationship between the company applying for an H-1B and its visa recipient.

H-1B visas are valid for three years and can be renewed for another three years. The USCIS says it may limit the length of the visa to shorter than three years based the information an employer provides. For example, if an employer can't prove the H-1B holder is "more likely than not" needed for the full three years, the government might issue the visa for fewer than three years. The memo also says the administration wants to prevent employee "benching." That's when firms bring on H-1B visa holders but don't give them work and don't pay them the required wages while they wait for jobs.

Comments

The orange one

[Master5000]

doing something useful for once. No more useless indians taking jobs here.

Re:The orange one

[Anonymous Coward]

You realize that the risk of him standing up for the working class is exactly why you've been told to hate him.

Not getting his cut

[Anonymous Coward]

Trump is up to his armpits in screwing with American citizenship and employment rights with birth tourism.

* http://theweek.com/speedreads/748344/russian-birth-tourists-are-flocking-miami-trump-condos-give-birth-american-citizens

That's right: his wealthy Russian friends are bringing their pregnant trophy wives to pop out the next generation of Russian oligarchs on US soil in Trump's lovely birthing condominiums.

Re:Your Argument

[PopeRatzo]

So just to be clear, your argument is that we should do what Obama did - nothing - and let companies not only abuse undocumented workers, but continue to abuse the H1-B system too?

No, my argument is that we should just follow the example of our beloved President and just straight-up hire illegal immigrants and pay them $4/hr.

Re:Why bother with H-1b visas?

[PopeRatzo]

The problem with blaming employers for hiring illegal (undocumented*) immigrants is that the U.S. government makes it impossible to actually verify if a potential hiree is in fact authorized to work in the U.S.

Yeah sure. That's the problem. When Trump was hiring illegals and paying them $4/hour he had no way of possibly knowing if they were here legally or not. The fact that they were willing to work for $4/hour and spoke no English wasn't any kind of clue.