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How did H-1B get such a bad reputation?

H-1B Specialty Occupation Visa originally designed to help U.S. firms find talent, now divides companies seeking IT talent from the skilled U.S workforce.
By Denise Dubie , Network World , 03/12/2008
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As the April 1 deadline to file H-1B visa applications nears, the debate is heating up among IT industry watchers and skilled workers over whether the often maligned program adequately serves U.S. companies or American workers as it was originally intended. (Read Bill Gates' testimony in front of Congress on the immigration issue.)

For IT industry watchers, the H-1B Specialty Occupation Visa originated as a means for U.S. companies to hire non-citizens with skills that seemed in short supply in America, fostering innovation within the country and keeping jobs from being sent overseas. The program applies to industries other than IT, such as education, science and medicine, but seems to have earned the worst reputation for displacing U.S. tech workers. Now industry watchers say the bad reputation the program engenders hinders the system from working to its full potential as American firms and foreign applicants scramble to receive one of 65,000 slots available for 2009.

"H-1B dominates in the tech industry by far, for engineering, architects and other technical skills, and there are many false theories out there that people from India are qualifying under fraudulent pretenses. It has hurt the public perception of the program," says Sonia Munoz, president of Immigration Legal Counsel, a law firm specializing in immigration law. "U.S. companies need to be competitive in a global economy, and it is most definitely detrimental to the U.S. economy to limit the number of H-1Bs and have fewer specialists hired by this program."

Yet for IT workers, many of whom say there are currently many challenges they face in getting hired by a U.S. company, the program can only been seen as having a negative impact on the American economy as firms look to hire less expensive, foreign workers for jobs that could be filled by U.S. citizens.

"Executives are being told by their hiring managers that there are not skilled workers in the U.S. and they must seek H-1Bs to fill positions," says Terri Morgan, a principal at Wudang Research Association who says she has encountered issues when seeking IT employment from U.S. companies, such as IBM. "There are a whole host of us out here that have really good skills and know the culture, but maybe we don't have one item on the check list HR is seeking. H-1B applicants know how to manipulate the system and companies know how to make it appear as though they exhausted their options here."

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I think you are Mr.By Anon on June 15, 2009, 2:53 amI think you are Mr. Ignorant. If American had really smart ppl, they would have not imported goods from china bcz they can produce for the same cost thereby many...

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LieBy Anon on June 11, 2009, 12:13 pmThink of this seasonal jobs? Then hire a US person specially the thousands of college and high school students out of work. Seasonal means no tech skills or limited...

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Okay if that is the caseBy Jose on June 8, 2009, 6:42 pmOkay if that is the case where do you work and what is the job. I have worked from North to South and East to West in some of the most hostile environment both natural...

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Phobi & IgnoranceBy Jose on June 8, 2009, 6:36 pmWe are no longer classified as inmigrants we are distinctive soverign Country as such we are no longer bound to Euroean or any other standard of race. Think of this...

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SurplusBy Jose on June 8, 2009, 6:26 pmOnce again what you propose is to open the market to cheap labor. Understand in this day an age I will never hire a foreign national to work at my company. Due to...

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NetScout and analyst Jim Metzler have teamed to deliver a series of IT Briefs on Network and Application Performance Management leveraging research from NetScout's nGenius & Sniffer users.

www.netscout.com

Metzler on Service Delivery Management

Delivering IT business value by evolving our thinking from managing application performance to focusing on services.

Learn More

2009 Handbook of Application Delivery

Successful IT organizations must know how to make the right application delivery decisions in these tough economic times.

Download the Handbook

Metzler on the Modern IP Network

Discusses the growing emphasis on network management and the need to implement a holistic view of the end-to-end experience of the user.

Read the Brief