As the Tech Economy Goes, So Go Special Visas

Date: Sunday, June 16, 2002 2:41 PM

*** H-1B NEWSLETTER ***

Get the Facts on H-1B at
www.ZaZona.com

On the surface this article would seem to indicate that American
companies
are dumping their H-1Bs in favor of unemployed domestic workers. Those
dubious claims are based on the fact that the INS says that less visas
are
being approved. If all of this is true then the yearly limit should be
immediately reduced but that's not what companies say they want. They
want
the limit to stay high so that they can continue to hire H-1Bs as soon
as
they feel they need more employees. They still don't want to hire
unemployed
Americans when they can tap that vast pool of cheap foreign labor.

The last part of this article confirmed that Tancredo's bill to reduce
the
H-1B limit probably won't come to a vote. We should still support his
bill
because it's the only pressure being applied against the industry
lobbyists
who are trying to keep the limit of 195,000 indefinitely. The current
H-1B
law mandates that the limit will drop to 65,000 in 2004 and that has the
well heeled lobbyists like Harris Miller working overtime to keep the
present high limits. Tancredo is the lone voice of opposition in
Congress.

June 16, 2002

As the Tech Economy Goes, So Go Special Visas

By RICK GREEN
New York Times

One of the last remaining bubbles of the high-technology boom has burst.

Applications by foreign workers for long-term H-1B work visas plunged
by nearly half in the first six months of the government's fiscal year,
according to new data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Perhaps more significant, approvals of the visas fell by more than
one-third. The H-1B, granted to highly skilled foreigners to help fill
jobs when no qualified Americans can be found, has been an important
recruiting tool for technology companies.

The decline has not, however, quieted critics of the H-1B program, who
say it was used during more prosperous times to displace American
citizens with foreigners willing to work for less money. Now that
companies are laying off workers, the critics contend, there is no
reason to import labor. Congress, they say, should lower the ceiling on
the number of H-1B visas granted.

Supporters of the program say the quota should remain the same, because
more imported workers will be needed when the economy heats up again.

The H-1B visas, which are work permits good for up to six years, are
given to professionals with four-year degrees and specialized skills.
They are coveted both by employers and would-be immigrants because the
visas are ideally suited for long-term work projects and often serve as
a first step toward permanent residence status.

H-1B's were in such short supply a few years ago that employers pressed
Congress to raise the ceiling to 115,000 in 1999, from 65,000 the year
before. It was raised again, to 195,000, in 2001. But the new cap is
unlikely to be reached this year.

Halfway through this fiscal year, only 105,800 applications had been
filed for visas covered by the cap, said the I.N.S., down 48 percent
from the first six months of fiscal 2001. Approval was given to 44,900,
down 38 percent.

"The H-1B numbers have finally caught up with the economy," said Mark
D. Shevitz, director of marketing at VisaNow.com, an immigration
processing service based in Chicago that tracks I.N.S. data.

In 2000 and 2001, the supply of H-1B visas was exhausted in a matter of
months.

The government figures are not complete, focusing only on applicants
who count against the annual cap. Not included are certain exempt
workers with unique knowledge, such as scientists working at national
research institutes. The comparisons were also skewed by a large number
of extra applications in 2001 as employers hurried to beat an I.N.S.
fee increase.

Nevertheless, it is clear to immigration experts that economic weakness
has put a damper on demand for foreign workers. Business is down at
many technology companies, which accounted for more than half of all
H-1B employees in previous years.

Instead, companies are more likely to hire laid-off United States
citizens. For foreigners, that means it is no longer good enough to be
merely well-educated.

"It definitely lessens the demand for the cookie-cutter H-1B," said
Daryl R. Buffenstein, general counsel for the American Immigration
Lawyers Association in Washington.

Economic weakness or not, said Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of
immigration policy at the Chamber of Commerce in Washington, American
universities are still not producing enough advanced mathematics and
science graduates, so employers must look overseas.

Critics of the H-1B program are not so sure. "You can't convince me
there's not a U.S. citizen available," said Representative Tom
Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, who introduced a bill in November to
roll back the H-1B ceiling to the 1998 level of 65,000.

Mr. Tancredo and some labor advocates say employers are merely using
the visas to import cheaper workers. He pointed to Qwest
Communications, based in Denver, which he said had been hiring foreign
workers in the last two years even as it was eliminating more than
10,000 jobs.

Chris Hardman, a Qwest spokesman, declined to say how many H-1B workers
the company employed, or whether it was hiring new ones. "We hire the
most qualified person for the position," he said, adding that Qwest is
training American workers to reduce reliance on foreign specialists.

Mr. Tancredo conceded that his bill would probably never come to a
vote, but said he hoped to create pressure that would prevent the
program from expanding. The ceiling is scheduled to revert to 65,000 in
2004 unless Congress acts sooner.

Back to archives