The fireworks are still ringing in my ears this morning when I open this inspiring e-mail from a reader – an IT manager and an immigrant – who was spurred to write by recent coverage of that now notorious video clip showing a bunch of lawyers on a panel advising their audience members on how to cheat the H-1B visa system.
That video has spurred a tremendous outpouring of outrage directed at not only the law firm and those companies that would follow its un-American advice, but also the H-1B visa system itself. It’s the latter that our correspondent addresses most eloquently this morning, as his is a true American success story and evidence of how the H-1B system should work and would work if not for the unscrupulous manipulations of corporate America. (I am not identifying the writer only because I’ve not yet had opportunity to get his permission.)Here is the man’s tale:
Let me tell you my story. I was an H-1B visa recipient back in 1992, again in 1993, and then 1994. I am not sure if my life experience is anything other than anecdotal, but I think you should know what it looks like from an H-1B recipient’s point of view.
The first company that offered me the opportunity to come to the USA was a small (actually, tiny, as I became its third employee) software house that catered to the financial industry. In this case, their biggest customer was a bank whose roots were in my country of origin. The two reasons given for my selection was the fact that I was obviously fluent in my mother tongue, and thus would be able to better grasp the contents of the fixes or enhancements requested by the main customer. The other was that I had years of experience on the software used to develop the main application.
I am not sure what my lawyer did, and I hope it wasn’t something illegal, but I can understand that in my particular case, they would be hard pressed to find an American at that time with this combination of skills. One thing I remember, though, was that they could not use just the language ability as the main point of selection. He told me that was somewhat frowned upon by whomever was in charge of granting the visa at the time (this is before DHS).
I was paid peanuts, but of course would only learn that more than six months into the job. The wage offer was almost double what I was making back in my country, but I forgot to compute the local cost of living into that equation. I checked that off as part of my inexperience in such dealings. Then again, the company was struggling, so I can understand that under the circumstances it was the best they could offer at the time.
It might be just due to my own experience, but this is something I can understand, a small, struggling startup, wanting to find cheap but talented or experienced IT personnel, resorting to hiring H-1B to get itself off the ground, as they would not be able to pay market value for that kind of talent among the locals.
I can attest that the life of an H-1B is far from the heaven some might describe. Really, really far from it, in particular if you have family with you. Your spouse cannot work to help you with the usually lower pay, and even though you are paying taxes wherever you live, you have to pay full price for any (community) college classes tuition, as if you were a student from out of state.
But the worst is when you learn that if the “sponsor” folds, or decides to let you go, there is no renewal of the H-1B, and it has to be started from scratch. When you have a family, this adds an extra level of fear of being dismissed that leads to the “indentured servitude” approach to the job, meaning “gladly” taking long hours of work for no extra pay.
What truly insults me are big corporations using these same tools to get talent on the cheap, when they certainly could afford to pay and get the same talent among the locals. That I see as so unfair that it riles me anytime I hear one of the titans you mention in your article. I mean, I could understand if Microsoft or other big company would need a H-1B visa to offer a job to a Nobel-nominated fellow who has unique capabilities (creates new operating systems using old newspapers, a ball of yarn, some sticks, and cheap glue) and would be paid handsomely, but for regular system analysts and programmers? Give me a break!
Well, I hope you do not think less of me for my H-1B past. I became a citizen about five or six years ago (I am horrible with anniversaries, just ask my wife!) and now that I supervise of a small IT department, I was able to hire two locals, so I think the local job market came up on top.
Think less? Quite the contrary: Nothing I saw yesterday makes me any prouder to be an American than having read this man’s story.
As for those whose abuse of the visa system engenders such public vitriol that it endangers the totality of legal immigration? Well, you have to wonder what they’re thinking as they watch the fireworks with their children.
