Dubious companies and bench-time

Seeing the complaints that Programmers Guild filed against certain companies for advertising jobs only to visa holders and the media coverage that it received, I thought about informing the talented folks who may be looking for an opportunity to work in the U.S. about two issues that are important to consider if you are a visa seeker.

Cost
Never pay anyone for sponsoring an H1-B. It is illegal and more importantly the employer itself is probably dubious and doesn't have any work for you. They are making money off your visa sponsorship, if they did have any real work for you, then it should easily cover the cost of visa sponsorship (which is now over $2,000 excluding legal fees - another story). I know the desire that many foreign job seekers have to come to the U.S. to earn a decent living for the betterment of their family and their future, but do not fall into this trap. These type of employers are preying on your desire to immigrate to the U.S. and they may tempt you to pay BIG money in return for visa sponsorship. Did I mention that it is illegal too?

Bench-time
Back in the days I used to hear about bench-time, the period between projects. Many times companies would not pay the consultants when they're out of project. It is common place in the U.S. for companies to do this to permanent residents or U.S. citizens. Its illegal for companies to not pay salary to visa holders during bench-time, it is OK to be unpaid if you are a permanent resident or a U.S. citizen. Infact if a permanent resident or U.S. citizen gets laid off, they can claim unemployment benefits while they look for another job. So its not surprising and also makes economic sense that you don't see them on bench, they're just laid off so that they can get those benefits. Visa holders on the other hand cannot get any unemployment benefits and if they're laid off they have to leave the country. This is one of the many discriminatory rules against job seekers who are on visas. Another reason why the H1 visa should not be tied to any company but to an individual. This will prevent many of the visa abuses that parties like the Programmer's Guild often cite.

The H1 visa program enables talented, amibitious hard-working people from all around the world to pursue the American dream. The U.S. in return gets these highly trained and skilled brains for no cost at all. It is really sad to see some dubious companies preying on the needs of ambitious youngsters who only want to work and earn a living. Its even more sad to see organized groups use the devious schemes as examples to bad mouth the H1 visa program. Do they ever thank the thousands of folks who have contributed immensely to the economy? Considering a 5% unemployment rate, 65,000 is less than 0.45% of the total unemployed. What the U.S. should be worried about is not the few jobs that go to these brilliant foreign talent but the day when these people do not wish to come to the U.S. anymore!

Programmers Guild file H1-B visa complaints

A major point of argument against foreign workers on H1 visas is that they're not skilled or competent enough but just cheap labor that companies often abuse. Programmer's Guild, another IT workers lobby group has filed various complaints to the U.S. Department of Justice that certain U.S. companies use words like "We require candidates for H1B from India" and "We sponsor GC [green card] and we do prefer H1B holders". They remind us that these are against the U.S. Immigration laws and that these companies should try and hire Americans before they hire a foreigner. They argue that these companies only want to hire foreigners as cheap labor and essentially use these examples to black label the visa program itself.

According to the USCIS definitions, H1-B speciality occupations include such diverse fields as architecture, mathematics, social sciences, accounting, arts, law, education. Candidates should have atleast a bachelor's degree or equivalent. If indeed companies wanted to bring in cheap labor, shouldn't we see more foreign architects, lawyers, accountants, professors, doctors as they should be as easily available in any other country as programmers are? Then why are there mostly only IT workers being brought in on H1-B and significantly lesser numbers in other occupations? Everyone knows how highly paid some of these other occupations are and shouldn't companies just hire them cheaper abroad if that was their only goal?

While I agree that those who abuse the program should be punished, the few abuses itself should be no reason to stop or cut back the program. Let the markets decide what is the required number and let the labor groups and the Government agencies ensure that wage abuses are monitored and prevented. The complaints that the guild filed mention ads on sites like DICE and MONSTER, but they also mention dozens of ads on SULEKHA.com, which is a community web portal for expatriate Indians. Are they suggesting that companies should not advertise vacant job positions to foreign nationals? The guild is just using technical reasons to promote its own agenda. One look at their home page is enough to understand whether they're concerned more about improving the quality of the visa program or whether they are against the visa program itself and are finding reasons to stop it.

The truth is, there is a lack of "QUALITY" people and that's it. IT is only about 1.5% of the total U.S. work force and high-tech jobs are ever increasing. The shortage of "QUALITY" people drives up the wages of the few people who are employed in IT. These people who are then fundamentally opposed to bringing foreign workers will go to great lengths to find flaws in the system. If these so called "abuses" in the H1-B system are fixed, then they will find other ways to oppose it, that's just their job!

Why U.S. Tech Firms Need More, Not Fewer, Indian Workers

IT is still in its developing stages in many parts of the globe. The demand for skilled tech workers is still going strong. InformationWeek has this story today which explains why U.S. firms need to hire more in India and other developing nations.

"Less than one half of IBM's revenues derive from sales to customers in the United States. Earlier this week, Indian outsourcer TCS bagged two deals worth more than $30 million in Latin America. Here's why these two facts combined show why American tech services firms have no choice but to continue adding staff in India and China while trimming down their more expensive U.S. workforce.

The anti-offshoring lobby tends to forget that American firms--in tech and in most other industries--aren't selling just to U.S. customers. IBM, EDS, HP and others have sizeable sales opportunities in Europe, South America and, most significantly, the Asia Pacific region. But, those same opportunities await foreign IT services vendors--including Atos Origin, Cap Gemini, Wipro, Infosys and the above mentioned TCS.

So imagine if, as some lobbyists and protectionist politicians would have it, strict limits were placed on the ability of U.S. companies to establish offshore operations in places like India and China. Were that to happen, there is no way that these firms could compete internationally with foreign rivals that are either based in, or have sizeable operations in, countries where skilled tech labor is considerably cheaper than in the U.S.

Indian outsourcers exist, and they are radically changing the economics of the IT services market globally. All the wishing, hoping and cussing in the world isn't going to change that. IBM and the other U.S. tech services vendors need to radically adjust their cost basis to reflect that reality or they will be reduced to small, regional niche players. How many layoffs do you think we'd see then?"

Has the U.S. really increased the number of visas?

A few weeks back I reported that the U.S. Senate passed the CIR bill. Since then I've been approached by a few friends who said that the U.S. has increased the number of visas for the high-skilled. This is another example of painting the rosy picture by the news media. While it is true that these provisions exist in the CIR bill, it is not true that the U.S. has passed these provisions. The CIR bill has only passed the U.S. Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives has to reconcile it with their version which didn't have any immigration benefits, instead they had provisions for fencing the border and deporting illegals. So at the end of the House-Senate conference committee (which has not yet been formed and which some House Republican members are threatening to kill), it may be possible that no pro-legal immigration provisions come out at all. Whatever comes out of the conference committee will be signed into law by President Bush.

Last year there was a Budget Reconciliation Bill, the Senate version (S.1932) of which included increasing visa numbers; but in the House-Senate conference, the House members managed to remove all immigration benefits except allocating 50,000 re-captured visas for nurses . House members are local politicians who don't care much about the U.S. as a whole and Senate members are mostly more educated and are more world-conscious. All bills have to pass both houses before they can be signed into law by the President.

For a quick skinny on the U.S. Congress visit this link at Wikipedia.

Why does this blog sound so gloomy on the U.S. ?

So a friend of mine asked me why I'm being discontent when "they" have increased the number of visas to 1.5 lacs and when there are lots of jobs available in the U.S. It is for reasons like this that I get motivated writing this blog. As I say right under the banner, my blog will contradict some of the rosy picture painted by the media.

First of all, let me start by saying that the job scenario is almost like the pre dotcom bubble era. It's getting harder to find quality candidates as most of them are comfy with their jobs. Fresh graduates are increasingly finding jobs they like and more people are switching back to IT now that the real-estate frenzy has died down. You can find these aspects in the news media easily and that's why I don't write about them. So, reading my blog will surely seem gloomy as I show only one-side of the coin but then so does the news media - they show the brighter side, I show the darker side.

Non-immigrant spouse worries

What do you think about your wife working? It's a very personal question and depends on various factors. Does she need to work to help with finances or does she need to work to keep herself busy? It's really upto the husband and wife to decide. Well, now how would you feel if the Government told you that your wife is not allowed to work. Will you feel like some right of yours is being violated? This is exactly what the U.S. does to the spouses of non-immigrant (work and student) visa holders.

U.S. does not allow your wife (or husband) to work if you are on a work or student visa. So she has to sit at home all day even if she has a Masters degree and years of experience that will clearly benefit the U.S., if she were to work. To make matters worse, she is not even allowed to have a social security number which is tied to the credit score that is used by banks and lending institutions in deciding if she is eligible for a loan. She may have trouble getting a driver's license which is the de facto ID for all local purposes. If she enrolls into college for further studies, she has to pay the higher tuition fees that are charged to non-residents even if she has stayed there for many years. She is truly a non-existant entity, a second class resident without some of the most basic rights. In this stage she is vulnerable to depression and domestic abuse. That's equal rights, American style! Now for some eye-openers.

• The UK with its much higher population density and cost of living allows the spouse of non-immigrants to take any job he or she pleases to. Go there if you care about your wife.
• Everyone knows how the U.S. likes to boast about its values of freedom and liberty, specially to the conservative middle-eastern countries. Well know this then, even the UAE allows the spouse of a non-immigrant to work.

The right to work is a basic human right that the individual should be the one to choose and not the Government. Doesn't it seem like protectionism on the part of U.S to bar spouses from working? Isn't there already a numerical limit on the number of non-immigrants allowed? How does some women working to spend their time hurt the general population? Even if it does hurt some what, does it trump over their basic right to work? Do not allow people to come in if you're that worried. If you let them in, then allow them all rights and treat them as you would treat anyone else.

Cheese in a mouse-trap

An excellent personal account I found today details the emotional journey of an ambitious young engineer through his 10 year stint in the USA. Reading it has inspired me to write the following:

Early 1990s were the days when the American dream was becoming more of a reality for many brilliant engineers from India. These were the type of guys who could re-invent electricity if needed. A poor nation with scarce natural resources, corrupt bureaucracy, abundant poverty and an embarassing caste-system had finally found a niche - intelligent, educated, english-speaking and motivated youth.

The cheese
America seemed the place where the best of everything was. Indian youth were getting exposed to the world of opportunities outside its poor motherland. Indians are extremely patrioitic, yet these young men and women wanted to embrace a different land. May be they had given up hope on their own country. May be they wanted a short-cut to a more materialistic life. American companies valued their skills and talent and were willing to hire people from countries half way around the globe.

The mouse-trap
Many came to the U.S. on work-permits that would allow them to work in the U.S.A for a few years. Once here, companies would sponsor them for permanent residency ("green" card) which would allow them to stay in the U.S. permanently. While all this sounded good, little did they know that the decades old immigration laws were going to trap them in a state of limbo soon. October 12 2005 was the D-day for most green card applicants when their applications were further delayed back by 5 or more years after having waited 3 years or more. This came as a rude shock for most people who were just going about their lives until then. This had completely destroyed all their future plans. From marriage, to buying a house, to changing jobs.

Freedom
When things go as expected people feel a sense of freedom to plan their lives. When everything you do is constrained by an unknown date of attaining permanent residency, you loose the freedom to plan your life. When the U.S. law makers willingly ignore the pain and agony of living every day waiting for the next visa bulletin, you know you are not wanted here. When America is not the dream you thought it was, it is time to break free.

July 2006 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 seperates 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 July 2006 visa bulletin:

For persons born in India:

Category	Cut-off Date	Movement from previous month
EB1	01 Jan 2006	No change
EB2	01 Jan 2003	No change
EB3	15 Apr 2001	Moved ahead by 7 days

For persons born in China:

Category	Cut-off Date	Movement from previous month
EB1	Current	Moved ahead by 11 months
EB2	01 Mar 2005	Moved ahead by 8 months
EB3	01 Oct 2001	Moved ahead by 3 months

For persons born in Phillipines:

Category	Cut-off Date	Movement from previous month
EB1	Current	No change
EB2	Current	No change
EB3	01 Oct 2001	Moved ahead by 3 months

For persons born in Mexico:

Category	Cut-off Date	Movement from previous month
EB1	Current	No change
EB2	Current	No change
EB3	22 Apr 2001	No change

For rest of the world:

Category	Cut-off Date	Movement from previous month
EB1	Current	No change
EB2	Current	No change
EB3	01 Oct 2001	Moved ahead by 3 months

Most IT related applicants would fall under EB3. That's backlogged by 5 years now for applicants born in India.

IBM ups investment in India

Last month I brought up an article that showed how IBM was moving high-end research jobs into India. Well here is a continuation of that story.

IBM to invest $6B in India over next three years, tripling its investment of past three years. It dwarfs the $3.9 billion combined investment announced last year for India by three U.S.-based companies Microsoft, Intel and Cisco Systems. IBM said it planned to expand its services, software, hardware and research businesses in India.

I remember in 2000 when IBM opened a development center in Andheri (a western suburb in Mumbai) where they only hired the most brilliant few that they could find. IBM only had 4,900 employees in India in 2002, now it has 43,000. That's still only 14% of its worldwide number of 300,000. There is more room to grow. And don't just limit this to IBM, the competition is going to imitate the leader, meaning more jobs coming to India and other developing countries.

Now what is the reason to immigrate to a foreign land when all these companies are setting up shop next to your home?