Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Economy, jobs and year 2008

The housing correction is causing companies across the entire economy to reconsider projections for the next year. If indeed the economy goes into recession or at least slows down as it has already done this quarter, the possibility of wage appreciation is zero. The entire argument that foreign labor depresses wages becomes irrelevant if the economy falters, as there will be mass layoffs and possible wage decreases for newly hired positions even without any immigration. The effect of immigration numbers on wages is really minuscule compared to the overall health of the economy, assuming we believe that such a thing does happen. Far more consequential is what would happen to competitiveness, productivity, innovation and jobs if protectionist laws are implemented during times of economic slowdown. Next year will be interesting.

Friday, December 21, 2007

USCIS As a Business Entity in EAD and Advance Parole Policy

From Mathew Oh:

  • The legacy INS and the USCIS had worked on a plan for a number of years to issue a multi-year EAD. It even conceived a plan to abandon a separate Advance Parole document and turn the EAD to function as the employment authorization document as well as overseas travel document for I-485 applicants. Indeed, the USCIS even enacted and released a regulation to issue an EAD card that can extend over a period in excess of one year. However, this regulation has never been implemented because of the alleged internal disagreement within the DHS leadership. Guess what! The sources of disagreement were reportedly "money, money, money!" By issuing such new multi-year EAD, the DHS was destined to lose a huge loss in the revenue of EAD card selling business.
  • Now what? Under the new filing fee schedule which took effect after July 29, 2007, issuance of EAD and Advance Parole for the post August 27, 2007 is "free, free, free" for the I-485 filers. Allegedly, the cost is incorporated in the I-485 filing fee of $1,020. The new regulation uses the term of "fee waiver" for EAD and Advance Parole for these I-485 filers. Now, you guessed it! Lo and Behold, the business calculation on EAD and Advance Parole has reversed. The DHS will lose a huge money by issuing single-year EAD and a separate Advance Prole document on a yearly basis over and over since they are free and they will have to keep producing it at no charge every year, which creates a huge workloads consuming its huge human resources and other production costs. This is particularly unacceptable to the agency under the predicted State Department Visa Bulletin for FY 2008 and in the future. Now, from the business standpoint, the DHS may make a huge money by issuing a multi-year EAD which will also function as a travel document. Ahah! No wonder why they are finally coming forward revealing their hidden agenda behind the new fee rule-making and EAD/Advance Parole reform business. Reportedly, Mr. Aytes of USCIS disclosed in a New York AILA conference that the USCIS was currently working on a single multi-year EAD card that will also replace the Advance Parole document. What a smart calculation it was in the new fee rule-making action.
  • It turns out that such single card acting serving as EAD as well as travel document for multiple years will serve the mutual interests of both the immigrants and other immigration stakeholders AND the USCIS. One interesting question is whether the DHS/USCIS will go all the way acting purely on business calculation or may extend some generosity and compassion for some I-485 filers as well. The answer to this question will also involve the timing of the change and the card policy. The fee waiver for EAD and Advance Parole applies only to the post July-2007 VB fiasco I-485 filers. Accordingly, the agency will make money from the post VB fiasco 485 filers and lose money from the pre VB fiasco 485 filers if the agency issues a new multi-year EAD card accross the board coving both groups. Even though the post VB fiasco I-485 applicants may outnumber the pre VB fiasco filers, the agency must be using calculators day and night to determine the answer for the agency's maximum benefits in terms of cost saving from the new policy. One option could be that they come forward with a new regulation that such multi-year EAD card will apply only to the post VB fiasco I-485 filers. The other option could be for the agency to set timing of the new policy such that a substantial number of pre-VB fiasco I-485 applicants leave the pipeline of green card process. The bad news for the second option for the agency is the State Department's Visa Bulletin predictions for FY 2008. It thus apepars that they will determine the break-even point or overriding cost saving point considering the pouring-in new I-485 applications in the future and the number of pre VB fiasco filers in its total pool of I-485 applications. The agency is likely to determine the timing of new card policy after a careful calculation of these factors. It will be considered a shameless act, should the agency adopt the first option, which will definitely face a legal challenge in courts from the standpoint of unlawful creation of classes in violation of the nation's Constitution and unequal treatment of the classes as well as a lack of fair play and fairness in administration of justice and government process.
  • Please watch carefully the upcoming move of the agency and how the business calculated new policy will unfold "how" and "when."

Thursday, October 25, 2007

'Blue Card' Visa Program

European Union recognizing their industry needs is gearing up to create a competing visa system for high skilled workers. This is in direct competition to the H1B visa in the US and work permits in Canada. Individual European nations do have some sort of immigration laws prior to this but the biggest advantage of the new system, one that is key to the foreign workers is the ability to work anywhere within the EU with one single visa. Here's the BusinessWeek article.

Meanwhile, US Senator Grassley is fighting to increase the H1B fees to almost $6000 per applicant to further restrict the use of H1B visas. Here's the new fee structure
    • $1,500 American Worker Training Fee ($750 if employs 25 or less employees)
    • $3,500 Supplemental Fee ($1,750 if employ 25 or less employees)
    • $500 Fraud and Abuse Prevention Fee
    • $320 H-1B Petition Fee
    • TOTAL=$5,820
That's progressive thinking from Sen Grassley and other LDAs (Lou Dobbs & Associates).

How about other nations impose similar trade restrictions on US goods and services. Here are few suggestions:
  1. Impose 500% surcharge on Pepsi and Coke products for a cola worker training fee so they can learn to make good cola without having to import the technology from US.
  2. Add $400 to every box of Microsoft Windows imported for a local software development fund. Use the money collected to build software indigenously without having to import US software.
If you think these sound ridiculous, that's exactly how Sen Grassley's proposed fees sound too.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Lou Dobbs and Associates fuming over Immigrants' success

With the limited success the legal immigrant group has had by getting the USCIS and DOS to honor the original visa bulletin, and the media coverage this relatively small group has had, it seems now Lou Dobbs & Associates (loose term for Lou Dobbs and like minded extremists) are venting their frustration on the legal immigrants. It just solidifies the point that these people are pure restrictionists. Have a look at the responses to this article from BusinessWeek has had.

Bruce
Jul 20, 2007 8:40 PM GMT

No one is against REASONABLE number of LEGAL immigrants but the H-1B visa program is essentially a scam. It's simply a way for firms to reduce their labor costs by increasing the number of available candidates for employment. Truth be known, Indians are famous for taking advantage of the H-1B program, for cheating it by not exiting the USA when their visa expires which they are supposed to do according to the law. It's all a scam - just like the now defunct immigration "reform" bill in the Senate last month. Foreign lobby groups pay off US politicians to allow more of their people into our nation. Time for this corrupt practice to wind down.

RG
Jul 20, 2007 8:23 PM GMT
In case you "immigrants" fail to read your H-1B visa, it is called a NON-IMMIGRANT VISA. That means you are supposed to leave the USA when the visa expires. Understand? Not bring a dozen of your relatives here to live with you forever. Why don't more Americans go into such "great" fields as IT? Young Americans now know that that once good field has been so diluted with foreigners, and salaries have come down due to an excess of labor. IT is no longer a desired occupation.
These are examples of hate-radio listeners who are getting so emotional over something that hardly affects their lives. 140,000 immigrants per year in a nation of 302,000,000 people is not even 0.05 percent of the population. Are we supposed to believe that the tiny fraction of the Americans who are against this represent the 300 million Americans? It's a democracy and its the majority opinion that counts and majority of Americans want high skilled legal immigration, period. Amen!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The Gandhi Protests Pay Off

Facing political pressure and legal action, the U.S. government may speed up green-card processing and make more slots available

Read the complete article at BusinessWeek

Friday, July 13, 2007

This post at ImmigrationVoice's forum is worth the read:

I've had it, I am moving to Canada
byeusa:
Dear Friends, I had it... I am moving to Canada in the next 2 months to work for guess who? Microsoft. Came to USA in 1997 for my masters, worked at Legato, Documentum and Opentext. Had to restart my GC twrice, once as the company laid me off and next for career progression. GC is still years years away. Interviewed with MSFT last month and got an offer to work in their Enterprise Collaboration team. MSFT looked at the visa mess I was in and offered me to work in Vancouver. I get my Canadian GC in 6 months and my wife can work from day one. I am abandoning my US dream for good;guess I would be satisfied with touching my 4 year old son's American passport.

I worked for a canadian company in US and now would be working for a US company in Canada. This is globalization. True Globalization. Any for those whiners belonging to IEEE and its propoganda machine, I would like to mention that I drew salries which were above way above the norm. I am sure I would be drawing more than 2 of his programmers combined. Ron- ask your folks to learn to compete and update their skills. They probably studied studied 'history of mathematics' as a math subject in high school instead of calculus. They were happy that they had the coolest Nintendo games while many like me were burning the midnight old figuring out data structures at Berkeley.

I hope Berney Sanders and his club of the CIR days are hearing the developments. Berney, fix the broken education system for job protection rather than building fences to prevent legal workers to come to this gifted country. More companies will leave for nearshore if the mess continues. Fix the system by closing the H1B loopholes that a small percentage of companies are exploiting. Don't bad mouth the H1B system which has given you so much talent that you could have never groomed, the talented individuals who have contributed to the society, social security system and what not. Patch the holes in the fence, do not erect a higher fence for which people need to pay $ 5000 to cross. And by the way if you have the inclination and the time- fix the broken LEGAL High Skilled immigration system.
Reply With Quote

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Fate of U.S. Senator Vitter on the Edge for Involvement in the Madam's List

From Mathew Oh's website: This Senator from Luisiana who vigorously underminded and killed the CIR 2007 by introducing tons of amendments to S. 1639 for the purpose of filibuster turned out to be a customer of the madam services in the Beltway, according to the news report, and reportedly confessed himself that he was the sinner. He is the first term Senator. This has brought him to the edge of a thread for his political future. The madam's phone list has been recently released, putting a number of prominent legislators in the Beltway restless. The politcal enemies are fumbling through the stacks of phone lists to look for the names. Hmm.................................... Wonder who else are there?

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Microsoft moves north

Unable to meet its hiring needs because of U.S. immigration policy, the software company is opening an office in Vancouver

MICROSOFT CORP. is expanding in the Pacific Northwest, hiring several hundred software wizards to help develop new products. Instead of landing at the Redmond, Wash., mother ship, however, the new workers will toil in Vancouver, British Columbia. Here's why, according to the company's news release (emphasis added): "The Vancouver area is a global gateway with a diverse population, is close to Microsoft's corporate offices in Redmond and allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S."

LA Times link: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-microsoft10jul10,0,3731138.story

A Gift From Gandhi - Floral protest

Washington Post: Frustrated Green Card Applicants From India Use Methods Of Master

The idea for the protest began with the Indian immigration community on the online forum Immigration Voice, a site devoted to issues facing skilled, legal workers seeking permanent residence in the United States. Their method was inspired by Mohandas K. Gandhi, who spent years campaigning nonviolently for India's independence from Britain

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Reversal Frustrates Green-Card Applicants

The government's surprise offer, then abrupt reversal, of an opportunity for thousands of skilled foreign workers to obtain permanent residency in the U.S. highlights the problems of the overtaxed immigration system and the frenzy that results from a chance to apply for a green card.

The scramble has put tens of thousands of workers and their families in limbo after many of them and their employers spent thousands of dollars in hopes of securing permanent residency. It may result in a class-action lawsuit against the government by frustrated applicants.

Article link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118359095890657571.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Citigroup to cut 17,000 jobs, but India headcount set to rise

PTI reports World's largest financial services firm Citigroup Inc today said it will eliminate 17,000 jobs or nearly five per cent of its global workforce, even as it plans to move 9,500 positions to India and other low-cost locations.

The company could move a large chunk of its jobs -- which could be in the range of 5,00-8,000 -- to India, especially for equity research, investment banking and back-office transaction-related activities, sources close to the developeent said. The total number of jobs to be eliminated equal more than half of the total number of positions Citigroup added to its workforce in 2006.More than 9,500 jobs will be moved to lower-cost locations, both domestically and internationally, the company said.

ISB student bags $274,000 job offer

From Hindustan Times:

In a world where any job offer is better than no offer, a graduate of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad has walked away with a Rs 1.18 crore (over $274,000) annual package at the end of another great year of placements at the campus. The student from the Class of 2007 attracted the highest international cost-to-company annual package of Rs 1.18 crore, while the average global CTC stood at Rs 59.5 lakh, the school's dean M Rammohan Rao said, announcing the results of the placement season.

IBS as some of you may know was founded on December 20, 1999 by a group of Fortune 500 entrepreneurs in collaboration with Andhra Pradesh's state government. Nara Chandrababu Naidu, the then chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh played a key role in establishing the institution. IBS partners include London Business School, Wharton Business School and Kellogg School of Management.

Signs of changing times?

Friday, March 02, 2007

March Visa Bulletin

The reason I didn't blog the March visa bulletin is simple, it's exactly the same as the February visa bulletin. Absolutely no movement in any of the employment-based visa dates. So the USCIS is telling each of the half a million applicants, please wait another month to see if there is any change. What a joke! I can't believe this is supposed to be the most advanced nation in the world. If the USCIS were a company, they would be bankrupt by now!

Update on the Developer position

It's now over three months since we started the job search. We had a candidate last week, who also got two other offers in much bigger firms. Come on all you unemployed, under employed programmers/developers, where are you? Ron Hira would like us to believe there are plenty of them but we can't find any!

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Labor substitution to be eliminated

The U.S. Department of Labor(DOL) is planning to eliminate a provision whereby companies who filed for Labor Certification for a candidate could replace it with another candidate. This may seem as if DOL is getting strict, but the fact is that companies use the approved labor certs to lure new candidates or even sell it to unscrupulous elements when the person for whom the original labor cert was filed is no longer with the company. With the backlog elimination expected to be completed by September, there are going to be a lot of older labor certs approved where the person is now no longer with the company. It is only fair for the people waiting in the retrogression queue to get the visa numbers before new candidates are sold these approved certs with earlier priority dates.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill

It's round two of the CIR bill drama. Senator Kennedy (D-MA) is planning to introduce the bill in the Senate this month with most of the action due in April. Watch for more anti-immigrant rhetoric appearing among the "Faux" news crowd. Last time around, the Senate had passed the bill by a majority (and the Indian news media celebrated as if it was already a law!), but the bill was left in the dust by the House Republicans. It was election year and no one wanted to get caught with mud on their hands. This time around it's a different story, the Democrats control the House and the Republications who did the maximum mud-slinging, all lost their seats. It would be interesting to see what Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and Co. do this time to stop this bill from being passed.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Another attack on H1 visas

Ron Hira, the Indian born professor at Rochester Institute of Technology has come up with numbers that may pose this question. Indian outsourcers file the most applications for temporary H-1B visas. Are they using them to train staff for jobs abroad? Everyone knows that India is becoming the IT hub of the world. So is it any wonder that Indian companies use the most H1 visas? I wonder what he's trying to convey. That's when I did some research to find Ron Hira's history. (Note: Ron is not an Indian name, he probably changed it to Ron to make him appear more American, what a faker!)

Back in April 2005, he came out with a book, Outsourcing America: What’s Behind Our National Crisis and How We Can Reclaim American Jobs. So that's what it is, he's a book salesman. He will continue to twist numbers to suit his views in the book. He make these ridiculous claims without any credibility in economics.

I am on H1, and I am not training to be doing any work overseas. My hard work over that last few years have made this company grow more than 100%. And thank the press for publishing any story they can get on this topic without doing a background check on the person. I know three companies including mine who are trying to hire Americans for a senior developer position and can't get any good candidates. Two out of the five candidates we got for interviews were Asian Americans. This trend seems to be growing as we see the economy posting record growth.

NEWS FLASH FOR ALL H1B HATERS: We're out of the 2002 recession, so all H1 haters, wake up and go get a real job. There are so many out there. You may be my next colleague.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Immigrants behind 25 percent of startups - BusinessWeek

Foreign-born entrepreneurs were behind one in four U.S. technology startups over the past decade, according to this study by Duke University and UC Berkeley. BusinessWeek further reports from the study that immigrant entrepreneurs' companies employed 450,000 workers and generated $52 billion in sales in 2005, according to the survey. Their contributions to corporate coffers, employment and U.S. competitiveness in the global technology sector offer a counterpoint to the recent political debate over immigration and the economy, which largely centers on unskilled, illegal workers in low-wage jobs.

One of the study's biggest surprises was the extent to which Indians led the entrepreneurial pack. Of an estimated 7,300 U.S. tech startups founded by immigrants, 26 percent have Indian founders, CEOs, presidents or head researchers, the study found. Indian immigrants founded more tech startups from 1995 to 2005 than people from the four next biggest sources -- United Kingdom, China, Taiwan and Japan -- combined.

Without permanent citizenship, inventors are more likely to take valuable intellectual property elsewhere -- and U.S. companies would have to compete with them, Wadhwa said. "The bottom line is: Why aren't these people citizens?" Wadhwa said. "We're giving away the keys to the kingdom. This is a big, big deal once you figure out what this means for U.S. competitiveness."

Monday, January 15, 2007

Agriculture workers get preference over high skilled workers

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who has been relentlessly pushing the AgJobs bill since the CIR days, has introduced her puppy in the 110th Congress by itself. The bill plans to provide the previous illegals the Blue Card status for two periods of three years each. The Senate passed CIR bill of 2006 had these provisions in them and now they can't even wait for the bill to be re-introduced this year. Sounds a little surprising right? Well then here is the alarming part. Quietly worded in painstaking detail in the bill are provisions for their spouses to work too. This is an outright slap in the face of H-1B workers. Their spouses cannot work even if they have a Master's degree. Yet, spouses of former illegal aliens can now work legally? I'm not against their spouses working but does it sound fair on the thousands of spouses here legally on H4 visas?

The lack of legal work privileges for spouses of the skilled workers is why you see a majority of unmarried younger individuals on H-1B visas. Younger workers generally have lesser experience. Lesser experience means lesser starting salaries. This would then appear as if foreign workers are working for lesser pay than Americans. The anti-H1 groups then use this statistic to point out why they should restrict or stop the H1 visa program. This then causes the law makers to be extremely careful when enacting legislation, to not give too much away to the H1 workers. Not enabling spouses to work is one such restriction to prevent too many American jobs going to foreigners. Doesn't seem fair right? But that's how it is!

Friday, January 12, 2007

February 2007 Visa Bulletin

Every month around the 15th day, the U.S. Dept. of State, releases the visa bulletin which lists who can avail of a visa number next month to adjust status to permanent residency. This bulletin breaks down the numbers based on the category and also separates out over-subscribed countries from the rest of the world. When you apply for permanent residency you get a case number and a priority date. If your priority date is earlier than the date listed in the visa bulletin for your application category, USCIS will proceed with your case and in most cases you will get your permanent resident card in a few months. Here are the cut-off dates for employment-based permanent residency categories from the February 2007 visa bulletin:

For persons born in India:
CategoryCut-off DateMovement from previous month
EB1CurrentNo change
EB208 Jan 2003No change
EB308 May 2001No change

For persons born in China:

CategoryCut-off DateMovement from previous month
EB1CurrentNo change
EB222 Apr 2005No change
EB301 Aug 2002No change

For persons born in Philippines:
CategoryCut-off DateMovement from previous month
EB1CurrentNo change
EB2CurrentNo change
EB301 Aug 2002No change

For persons born in Mexico:
CategoryCut-off DateMovement from previous month
EB1CurrentNo change
EB2CurrentNo change
EB315 May 2001No change

For rest of the world:
CategoryCut-off DateMovement from previous month
EB1CurrentNo change
EB2CurrentNo change
EB301 Aug 2002No change

Since the past eight months, EB3 India has not advanced beyond May 2001. This is the first visa bulletin in a while where there has been no change in any of the above visa categories. Must have been due to the December vacation month.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Cisco's Grand India Ambitions

Here's the big story of the day and further proof that globalization is forcing companies to change they way they do business.

The networking-equipment maker is shifting 20% of top brass to India, in a bid to set up a global, developing-technology hub on the subcontinent. After 11 years of low-key presence Cisco is now investing $1.1 billion in India in a variety of initiatives. "This is the largest commitment outside of Silicon Valley, as India is important to our global strategy," said John Chambers, Cisco's chairman and chief executive officer.

So what is the reason for this sudden transformation? It appears that they have learnt a lesson or two from their experiences in China.
In China, homegrown rivals like Huawei and Harbour Networks have been grabbing share from Cisco. The other issue is cost. Huawei can compete against Cisco on price because of its cheap talent pool. Facing those pressures, Cisco will find it hard to maintain its high margins unless it develops its own vast force of low-cost engineering talent.
This is an excellent example of how globalization works. While it opens up vast new markets, it also makes the business extremely competetive. There is no way Cisco can compete unless it employs a model similar to its competitors. Closed-door restrictionists will only see one side of this story - Cisco is moving top jobs to India..waah waah, mommy help me!
... Cisco now wants to make India its global hub for developing technologies in routing, software, and network management. It is investing in a manufacturing facility in Chennai in south India, and has roped in global manufacturing partner Foxconn of Taiwan to help out. While Cisco will make specific voice-technology products initially for the Indian market, it will eventually use the facility as a global sourcing base to export high-tech products. To make all of this happen, Cisco is tripling its headcount in India to 6,000 in the next couple of years. The move comes at a time when India is facing a severe dearth of engineers and every big and small information-technology company is on a hiring spree.
All those who made New Year resolutions to changes jobs and move to U.S., think twice, as we will see more top companies shifting top jobs from the U.S. to compete globally.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Disadvantages of not having a green card

A green card(permanent resident card) is not just another DHS document. It has a lot of importance when you travel internationally, open bank accounts, apply for driver's license. A post on ImmigrationVoice summarizes the hassles caused to persons without the green card owing to indifferent government rules.

Transit visa required at many international airports such as London, Paris, Germany. None required if you hold a recent valid U.S. permanent resident card.

Hassles and extra paperwork to open bank accounts, applying for student loans, home mortgages. Many application forms specifically allow U.S. citizens or green card holders only.

Problems with job changes. This is the single biggest disadvantage to not having a green card. One post summarizes this well.
"The biggest disadvantage for us is in our jobs - so many jobs are advertised with a clear mention that they don't support visa. This is not restricted to some mom and pop tech shops even some bigger companies do that. Also in big companies where H1B's are welcomed (like Cisco, Microsoft etc); they dont take you if you have less remaning time on your H1B. I knew a case where a friend of mine was interviewed and offered a very good position in one such reputed companies. The interview/background check process took two/three months at the end of it they realized that the personal have only 1year 4months left on his H1B visa. So they told him they wont take him; reason given is company policy that they need atleast 2 years on your H1B so that they have enough time to sponsor greencard etc. There are so many such instances where we are losing big time on our careers in the peak of our lifes." - nk2006
Driver's license issues. Here it all depends on your luck as one post summarizes it all:
"I have been in different states and this drivers licence rule differ substantially. California / florida strictly goes with your H1b validity date. For H4, it is much more difficult and my wife did not get it in CA but somehow managed ot get it in FL. When I moved to wisconsin, they gave me 3+years over my H1b validity date and also for my wife. The entire DMV process took us 5 mins whereas in FL, we stood in line from morining 3 am till evening 5pm and eventually got appointment for next day. When I asked about this in WI DMV, they said Wisconsin does not follow this and they are not aware of this." - GCBy3000
Missing out on thousands of dollars in savings on federal programs for students.
"My son who is in high school goes for a federal funded summer program every year. he is cursing me now as he cannot claim the $1000 stipend since he doesn't have an SSN(green card)." - GCAmigo
These are the real life hardships that legal residents face when there is no judgment on their application for permanent residency even after years of filing their papers. Many people think that the green card is just a document granting them permanent resident status but the examples above summarize the many real life scenarios where that single card is the difference between a simple and smooth transaction or a stressed out experience involving a lot of time and money.

Happy New Year!


Wishing all of my readers a very happy new year 2007. If you like me are stuck in the legal permanent resident application black hole, I hope this is the year where we see some light.