H-1B visa
Encyclopedia
The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa in the United States
under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H). It allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign worker
s in specialty occupations. If a foreign worker in H-1B status quits or is dismissed from the sponsoring employer, the worker must either apply for and be granted a change of status to another non-immigrant status, find another employer (subject to application for adjustment of status and/or change of visa), or leave the United States.
The regulations define a "specialty occupation" as requiring theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge in a field of human endeavor including but not limited to architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, biotechnology, medicine and health, education, law, accounting, business specialties, theology, and the arts, and requiring the attainment of a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent as a minimum (with the exception of fashion models, who must be "of distinguished merit and ability".) Likewise, the foreign worker must possess at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent and state licensure, if required to practice in that field. H-1B work-authorization is strictly limited to employment by the sponsoring employer.
Despite a limit on length of stay, no requirement exists that the individual remain for any period in the job the visa was originally issued for. This is known as H1B portability or transfer, provided the new employer sponsors another H1B visa, which may or may not be subjected to the quota. Under current law, H1B visa has no stipulated grace period in the event the employer-employee relationship ceases to exist.
A yearly "shortfall" in available visas arose beginning in the mid 2000s, despite a temporary increase in the yearly cap. The number had been increased to 195,000 in FY2001, FY2002 and FY2003. The Department of Homeland Security approved about 132,000 H-1B visas in 2004 and 117,000 in 2005.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
accepts H1-B visa applications no more than 6 months in advance of the requested start date, which is the start of the US fiscal year (October 1st of the previous year). Thus the first business day of April opens the H1-B visa application window.
For FY2008, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
has announced that on the first day that H-1B visa applications would be accepted (Monday, April 2, 2007), it had already received 150,000 applications, more than twice as much as the 65,000 cap. Per agency rules, when the limit is reached on the first day of filing, all applications received on the first two days are put into a lottery to determine allocation of the available visas.
In 2008, the US 2009 fiscal year H-1B visa quota was reached one week into the application process. For FY 2010, USCIS announced on December 22, 2009 that the quota had been filled.. For FY 2011, final receipt date for new H1-B petitions was January 26, 2011. For FY 2012, as of August 15, 2011, only 25,300 petitions had been filed against the cap of 65,000.
In 2008, a total of 276,252 visa applications (initial, renewals and extensions) were approved, and in 2009 that number decreased slightly to 214,271 and 110,367 initial H-1B visas were issued from consular offices . The American Immigration Lawyers Association
(AILA), described the situation as a crisis, and the situation was reported on by the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek
and Washington Post. Employers applied pressure on congress. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates testified in 2007 on behalf of the expanded visa program on Capitol Hill, "warning of dangers to the [U. S. economy] if employers can't import skilled workers to fill job gaps". Congress considered a bill to address the claims of shortfall, but in the end did not revise the program.
While an employer is not required to advertise the position before hiring an H-1B non-immigrant pursuant to the H-1B visa approval, the employer is required to notify the employee representative about the LCA (Labor Condition Application) or if there is no such representation then the employer is required to publish that LCA at the workplace and the employer's office.
Employers must attest that wages offered are at least equal to the actual wage paid by the employer to other workers with similar experience and qualifications for the job in question, or alternatively, pay the prevailing wage
for the occupation in the area of intended employment, whichever is greater. By signing the LCA, the employer attests that: prevailing wage rate for area of employment will be paid; working conditions of position will not adversely affect conditions of similarly employed American workers; place of employment not experiencing labor dispute involving a strike or lockout; and that the foreign employee will be given benefits comparable to those offered to its other workers with similar jobs.
The law requires H-1B workers to be paid the higher of the prevailing wage for the same occupation and geographic location, or the same as the employer pays to similarly situated employees. Other factors, such as age and skill were not permitted to be taken into account for the prevailing wage. Congress changed the program in 2004 to require the Department of Labor to provide four skill-based prevailing wage levels for employers to use. This is the only prevailing wage mechanism the law permits that incorporates factors other than occupation and location.
The approval process for these applications are based on employer attestations and documentary evidence submitted. The employer is advised of their liability if they are replacing a US worker.
The classification is determined based on the "substantial presence test": If the substantial presence test indicates that the H-1B visa holder is a resident, then income taxation is like any other U.S. person and may be filed using Form 1040 and the necessary schedules; otherwise, the visa-holder must file as a non-resident alien using tax form 1040NR or 1040NR-EZ; he or she may claim benefit from tax treaties
if they exist between the United States and the visa holder's country of citizenship.
Persons who are in their first year within the United States may choose to be considered a resident for taxation purposes for the entire year, and must pay taxes on their worldwide income for that year. This "First Year Choice" is described in IRS Publication 519 and can only be made once in a person's lifetime.
A spouse, regardless of visa status, must have a valid Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
(ITIN) or Social Security number
(SSN) in order to be included on a joint tax return with the H-1B holder.
The rules to file taxes for H-1B holders may be complex, depending on the individual situation. Besides consulting a professional tax preparer knowledgeable about the rules for foreigners, the IRS Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens, may be consulted.
H-1B visa holders pay Medicare
and Social Security taxes, and are eligible for Social Security benefits. They also pay state and federal taxes.
There are generally two exceptions to the six-year duration of the H-1B visa:
, meaning an H-1B holder can have legal immigration intent (apply for and obtain the green card
) while still a holder of the visa. In the past the employment-based green card process used to take only a few years, less than the duration of the H-1B visa itself. However, in recent times the legal employment-based immigration process has backlogged and retrogressed to the extent that it now takes many years for skilled professional applicants from certain countries to obtain their green cards. Since the duration of the H-1B visa hasn't changed, this has meant a lot more H-1B visa holders have to renew their visas in one-year or three-year increments to continue to be in legal status while their green card application is in process.
industry. It has generally been set at 65,000 visas per year, with some exceptions for workers at exempt organizations like universities and colleges (note: contrary to popular belief, non-profit organizations are not automatically exempt, but may be so if affiliated with a university or college). In 2000, Congress
permanently exempted H-1B visas going to Universities and Government Research Laboratories from the quota.
During the early years of this quota in the early 1990s, this quota was rarely actually reached. By the mid-1990s, however, the quota tended to be filled each year on a first come, first served basis, resulting in new H-1Bs often being denied or delayed because the annual quota was already filled. In 1998 the quota was increased first to 115,000 and then, in 2000, to 195,000 visas per year. During the years the quota was 195,000, it was never reached.
In FY 2004, the quota reverted to 90,000 when the temporary increase passed by Congress in 1999 expired. Since then, the quota is again filling up rapidly every year, making H-1Bs again increasingly hard to get. More recently, the basic quota was left at 65,000 but with an additional 20,000 visas possible for foreign workers with U.S. advanced degrees. Of the 65,000 total, 6,800 are initially reserved for citizens of Chile
and Singapore
under free trade agreements with those countries; however, if these reserved visas are not used under the agreements, they go back to the general pool. Outside of the 65,000 quota, another 10,500 visas annually are available to Australian citizens under a similar but more flexible program, the E-3 visa
program.
For FY 2007, beginning on October 1, 2006, the entire quota of visas for the year was exhausted within a span of less than 2 months on May 26, 2006, well before the beginning of the financial year concerned. The additional 20,000 Advanced Degree H-1B visas were exhausted on July 26.
In its annual report on H-1B visas released in November 2006, USCIS stated that it approved 131,000 H-1B visas in FY 2004 and 117,000 in FY 2005. The inflation in numbers is because H-1B visas can be exempt from the caps if the employer is a University or Research Lab.
For FY 2008, the entire quota was exhausted before the end of the first day on which applications were accepted, April 2. Under USCIS rules, the 123,480 petitions received on April 2 and April 3 that were subject to the cap were pooled, and then 65,000 of these were selected at random for further processing. The additional 20,000 Advanced Degree H-1B visas for FY 2008 was exhausted on April 30.
For FY 2009, USCIS announced on April 8, 2008 that the entire quota for visas for the year has been reached, for both 20,000 Advanced and the 65,000 quota. USCIS would complete initial data entry for all filing received during April 1 to April 7, 2008 before running the lottery.
For FY 2010, USCIS announced on December 21, 2009, that enough petitions were received to reach the year quota.
For FY 2011, USCIS announced on January 27, 2011, that enough petitions were received to reach the year quota on January 26.
For FY 2012, USCIS announced on November 23, 2011, that enough petitions were received to reach the year quota on November 22.
For firms of 50 employees, an H-1B dependent employer is defined as having more than 15% of their employees in H-1B status. Smaller firms are allowed to have a higher percentage of H-1B employees before becoming 'dependent'.
, cited Milton Friedman
as stating that the H-1B program acts as a subsidy for corporations. Others holding this view include Dr. Norman Matloff
, who testified to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration on the H-1B subject. Matloff's paper for the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform claims that there has been no shortage of qualified American citizens to fill American computer-related jobs, and that the data offered as evidence of American corporations needing H-1B visas to address labor shortages was erroneous. The United States General Accounting Office found in a report in 2000 that controls on the H-1B program lacked effectiveness. The GAO report's recommendations were subsequently implemented. High-tech companies often cite a tech-worker shortage when asking Congress to raise the 65,000 annual cap on H-1B visas, but according to a study conducted by John Miano and the Center for Immigration Studies there is no empirical data to support that claim. Citing studies done at Duke, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Georgetown University and others, critics have also argued that in some years, the number of foreign programmers and engineers imported outnumbered the number of jobs created by the industry. Organizations have also posted hundreds of first hand accounts of H1-B Visa Harm reports directly from individuals negatively impacted by the program, many of whom are willing to speak with the media.
Specialty occupations have been defined as positions that require theoretical or technical expertise in a specialized field and have generally been interpreted as being those that normally require the attainment of a Bachelor's degree
. Typical H-1B occupations include architects, engineers, computer programmers, accountants, doctors
, veterinarian
, dentist
, registered nurse
, business managers, and college professors. The H-1B visa program also includes fashion models
.
for the National Bureau of Economic Research
found that "a 10 percent immigration-induced increase in the supply of doctorates lowers the wage of competing workers by about 3 to 4 percent."
The LCA included in the H-1B petition is supposed to ensure that H-1B workers are paid the prevailing wage in the labor market, or the employer's actual average wage (whichever is higher), but evidence exists that some employers do not abide by these provisions and avoid paying the actual prevailing wage despite stiff penalties for abusers.
DOL has split the prevailing wage into four levels, with Level One representing about the 17th percentile of wage average Americans earn. About 80 percent of LCAs are filed at this 17th percentile level. This four-level prevailing wage can be obtained the DOL website, and is generally far lower than average wages.
The "prevailing wage" stipulation is allegedly vague and thus easy to manipulate, resulting in employers underpaying visa workers. According to Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the median wage in 2005 for new H-1B information technology (IT) was just $50,000, which is even lower than starting wages for IT graduates with a B.S. degree. The U.S. government OES office's data indicates that 90 percent of H-1B IT wages were below the median U.S. wage for the same occupation.
In 2002, the U.S. government began an investigation into Sun Microsystems' hiring practices after an ex-employee, Guy Santiglia, filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Labor alleging that the Santa Clara
firm discriminates against American citizens in favor of foreign workers on H-1B visas. Santiglia accused the company of bias against U.S. citizens when it laid off 3,900 workers in late 2001 and at the same time applied for thousands of visas. In 2002, about 5 percent of Sun's 39,000 employees had temporary work visas, he said. In 2005, it was decided that Sun violated only minor requirements and that neither of these violations was substantial or willful. Thus, the judge only ordered Sun to change its posting practices.
.
H-1B visa holders may be sponsored for their green cards by their employers through an Application for Alien Labor Certification, filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. In the past, the sponsorship process has taken several years, and for much of that time the H-1B visa holder was unable to change jobs without losing their place in line for the green card. This created an element of enforced loyalty to an employer by an H-1B visa holder. Critics alleged that employers benefit from this enforced loyalty because it reduced the risk that the H-1B employee might leave the job and go work for a competitor, and that it put citizen workers at a disadvantage in the job market, since the employer has less assurance that the citizen will stay at his job for an extended period of time, especially if the work conditions are tough, wages are lower or the work is difficult or complex. It has been argued that this makes the H-1B program extremely attractive to employers, and that labor legislation in this regard has been influenced by corporations seeking and benefiting from such advantages.
Some recent news reports suggest that the recession started in 2008 will exacerbate the H-1B visa situation, both for supporters of the program and for those who oppose it. The process to obtain the green card has become so long, that during these recession years it has not been unusual that sponsoring companies fail and disappear, thus forcing the H-1B employee to find another sponsor, and losing their place in line for the green card. An H-1B employee could be just one month from obtaining their green card, but if the employee is laid off, he or she may have to leave the country, or go to the end of the line and start over the process to get the green card, and wait as much as 10 more years, depending on the nationality and visa category.
The American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 provides some relief for people waiting for a long time for a green card, by allowing H-1B extensions past the normal 6 years, as well as by making it easier to change the sponsoring employer.
Subsequently, USCIS has made procedural changes to reduce the number of fraud and technical violations on H-1B applications.
An H-1B worker who is laid off and attempts to find a new H-1B employer to file a petition for him is considered out of status if there is even a one day gap between the last day of employment and the date that the new H-1B petition is filed. While some attorneys claim that there is a grace period of 30 days, 60 days, or sometimes 10 days, that is not true according to the law. In practice, USCIS has accepted H-1B transfer applications even with a gap in employment up to 60 days, but that is by no means guaranteed.
Some of the confusion regarding the "grace period" arose because there is a 10 day grace period for an H-1B worker to depart the United States at the end of his authorized period of stay (does not apply for laid-off workers). This grace period only applies if the worker works until the H-1B expiration date listed on his I-797 approval notice, or I-94 card. 8 CFR 214.2(h)(13)(i)(A).
The employer has the legal obligation to pay for the laid-off worker's return transportation.
Theoretically, the LCA process appears to offer protection to both U.S. and H-1B workers. However, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office, enforcement limitations and procedural problems render these protections ineffective. Ultimately, the employer, not the Department of Labor, determines what source it will use to determine the prevailing wage for an offered position, and it may choose among a variety of competing surveys, including its own wage surveys, provided that such surveys follow certain defined rules and regulations.
The law specifically restricts the Department of Labor's approval process of LCAs to checking for "completeness and obvious inaccuracies". In FY 2005, only about 800 LCAs were rejected out of over 300,000 submitted. Hire Americans First has posted several hundred first hand accounts of H1-B Visa Harm reports directly from individuals negatively impacted by the program, many of whom are willing to speak with the media.
Enforcement is substandard and there are reports of abusers surviving INS audits unscathed.
In 2009 Federal authorities busted a nationwide H-1B Visa Scam. In October 2008, a USCIS report found that the H-1B program has more than a 20 percent violation rate.
Because of AC21, the H-1B employee is free to change jobs if they have an I-485 application pending for six months and an approved I-140, if the position they are moving to is substantially comparable to their current position. In some cases, if those labor certifications are withdrawn and replaced with PERM applications, processing times will improve, but the person will also lose their favorable priority date
. In those cases, employers' incentive to attempt to lock in H-1B employees to a job by offering a green card is reduced, because the employer bears the high legal costs and fees associated with labor certification and I-140 processing, but the H-1B employee is still free to change jobs.
However, many people are ineligible to file I-485 at the current time due to the widespread retrogression in priority dates. Thus, they may well still be stuck with their sponsoring employer for many years. There are also many old labor certification
cases pending under pre-PERM rules.
On May 25, 2006 the U.S. Senate passed immigration bill 2611, which contained several increases in the number of H-1B visas, including:
However, as the House refused to consider the measure, it died in conference and no H-1B increase was approved in time for the elections.
The USCIS has announced that after completing a policy review that it was clarifying that to avoid H-1B quota limits, individuals who spent one year outside of U.S. and did not exhaust their entire six year term can choose to be re-admitted for “remainder” of initial six-year period without being subject to the H-1B cap.
The USCIS has also announced that after completing a policy review that it was clarifying that “any time spent in H-4 status will not count against the six-year maximum period of admission applicable to H-1B aliens.
On May 24, 2007, the Senate considered amendments to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill (S. 1348) including the Sanders Amendment to increase the H-1B Scholarship & Training Fee from $1500 to $8500 (for H-1B employers with more than 25 full time employees). The additional fee was to be used for training and scholarship programs and in addition to other existing fees. Senator Sanders listed the Teamsters Union and the AFL-CIO among supporters of his amendment. Without this amendment, Senator Sanders (I-VT) said, "skilled middle class and upper middle class Americans" would be hurt, and their wages would continue to be suppressed. Just prior to the vote, Senator Sanders announced that he had made changes to his amendment, dropping the fee for H-1B visas from the $8500 he proposed earlier, down to $5000. Following Senator Sanders’ announcement, Senators Kennedy and Specter expressed their support for the bill and the amendment passed by a vote of 59–35. Compete America
, a coalition of U.S. tech companies, reported the passage of the Sanders amendment will "accelerate outsourcing and undermine U.S. economic growth."
The Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008
, which, among other issues, federalizes immigration in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, stipulates that during a transition period, numerical limitations will not apply to otherwise qualified workers in the H visa category in the CNMI and Guam.
On Feb. 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
(“stimulus bill”), Public Law 111-5. Section 1661 of the ARRA incorporates the Employ American Workers Act (“EAWA”) by Senators Sanders (I-Vt.) and Grassley (R-Iowa) to limit certain banks and other financial institutions from hiring H-1B workers unless they had offered positions to equally or better-qualified US workers, and to prevent banks from hiring H-1B workers in occupations they had laid off US workers from. These restrictions include:
Some argue that this has effectively "killed the job-shop industry". While it is clear that the number of Visa petitions granted has declined (or is slower than normal to reach the full quota), it is not clear whether or not this is a result of simple political pressure to put the program on "hold", or a long-term result from real economic realities. The memorandum gives three clear examples of what is and is NOT considered a valid "employee employer relationship".
In the case of the software engineer the petitioner (employer) must simply agree to do (some of) the following among others:
It further states that "common law is flexible" in how these factors are to be weighed.
Although this memorandum cites legal cases and provides examples, such a memorandum in itself is not law and future memoranda could easily be issued that could change this.
L-1 visa
s are issued to foreign employees of a corporation. Under recent rules, the foreign worker must have worked for the corporation for at least one year in the preceding three years prior to getting the visa. An L-1B visa is appropriate for nonimmigrant workers who are being temporarily transferred to the United States based on their specialized knowledge of the company's techniques and methodologies. An L-1A visa is for managers or executives who will either manage people or an essential function of the company. There is no requirement to pay prevailing wages for the L-1 visa holders. For Canadian residents, a special L visa category is available.
TN-1 visas
are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), and are issued to Canadian and Mexican citizens. TN visas are only available to workers who fall into one of a pre-set list of occupations determined by the NAFTA treaty. There are specific eligibility requirements for the TN Visa.
E-3 visa
s are issued to citizens of Australia
under the Australia free-trade treaty.
H-1B1 visas are issued to residents of Chile and Singapore under the amended NAFTA treaty.
One recent trend in work visas is that various countries attempt to get special preference for their nationals as part of treaty negotiations. Another trend is for changes in immigration law to be embedded in large Authorization or Omnibus bills to avoid the controversy that might accompany a separate vote.
H-2B visa
: The H-2B nonimmigrant program permits employers to hire foreign workers to come to the U.S. and perform temporary nonagricultural work, which may be one-time, seasonal, peak load or intermittent. There is a 66,000 per year limit on the number of foreign workers who may receive H-2B status
Alternatives to H-1B visa:
(SSN). An H4 Visa holder may attend school, obtain a driver's license and open a bank account while in the US. In order to claim a dependent on a tax return or file a joint tax return, the dependent will have to obtain an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) which is used only for tax filing purposes.
and programmers on H-1B visas in the US, 74 percent were from Asia. This large scale migration of Asian IT professionals to the United States has been cited as a central cause of the quick emergence of the offshore outsourcing industry.
, Satyam Computer Services, Tata Consultancy Services
, and Wipro Technologies. Critics have argued that granting H-1B visas to these outsourcing firms is not the real intent of the H-1B Visa program. One reason given is: Critics claim that the Indian firms skirt regulations and use the visas to train workers in the U.S. to facilitate moving jobs offshore.
In 2006, Wipro applied for 20,000 H-1B visas and 160 Green Cards; and Infosys
applied for 20,000 H-1B visas and only 50 Green Cards. Of the Applied H-1B visas, Wipro and Infosys were granted, 4,002 and 4,108 visas respectively, an acceptance rate of 20% and 24%. Given that both companies have a work force of approximately 100,000 employees, and a U.S. employment base of roughly 20,000 H-1B holders, this indicates that roughly 1/5 of the Indian workforce of Infosys & Wipro applied for a visa in 2006. A 2009 Business Week article cited a ComputerWorld article indicating that Wipro was the top user of the program with 1,964 Visas.
Critics have argued against this trend, stating that there is no dearth of qualified workers in the United States.
In 2009, due to the worldwide recession, applications for H1B visas by outsourcing firms were significantly lower than in previous years.
United States visas
United States Visas were issued to 6.6 million foreign nationals visiting the United States and to 470 thousand immigrants in 2008.A foreign national wishing to enter the U.S...
under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H). It allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign worker
Foreign worker
A foreign worker is a person who works in a country other than the one of which he or she is a citizen. The term migrant worker as discussed in the migrant worker page is used in a particular UN resolution as a synonym for "foreign worker"...
s in specialty occupations. If a foreign worker in H-1B status quits or is dismissed from the sponsoring employer, the worker must either apply for and be granted a change of status to another non-immigrant status, find another employer (subject to application for adjustment of status and/or change of visa), or leave the United States.
The regulations define a "specialty occupation" as requiring theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge in a field of human endeavor including but not limited to architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, biotechnology, medicine and health, education, law, accounting, business specialties, theology, and the arts, and requiring the attainment of a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent as a minimum (with the exception of fashion models, who must be "of distinguished merit and ability".) Likewise, the foreign worker must possess at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent and state licensure, if required to practice in that field. H-1B work-authorization is strictly limited to employment by the sponsoring employer.
Duration of stay
The duration of stay is three years, extendable to six. An exception to maximum length of stay applies in certain circumstances:- one-year extensions if a labor certification application has been filed and is pending for at least 365 days; and
- three-year extensions if an I-140 Immigrant Petition has been approved.
Despite a limit on length of stay, no requirement exists that the individual remain for any period in the job the visa was originally issued for. This is known as H1B portability or transfer, provided the new employer sponsors another H1B visa, which may or may not be subjected to the quota. Under current law, H1B visa has no stipulated grace period in the event the employer-employee relationship ceases to exist.
Congressional yearly numerical cap
The current law limits to 65,000 the number of aliens who may be issued a visa or otherwise provided H-1B status each fiscal year (FY). Laws exempt up to 20,000 foreign nationals holding a master’s or higher degree from U.S. universities from the cap on H-1B visas. In addition, excluded from the ceiling are all H-1B non-immigrants who work at (but not necessarily for) universities and non-profit research facilities. This means that contractors working at, but not directly employed by the institutions may be exempt from the cap. Free Trade Agreements carve out 1,400 for Chilean nationals and 5,400 for Singapore nationals. Thus significantly more H-1B visas than the numerical cap are issued each year, with 117,409 in 2010.A yearly "shortfall" in available visas arose beginning in the mid 2000s, despite a temporary increase in the yearly cap. The number had been increased to 195,000 in FY2001, FY2002 and FY2003. The Department of Homeland Security approved about 132,000 H-1B visas in 2004 and 117,000 in 2005.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security . It performs many administrative functions formerly carried out by the legacy United States Immigration and Naturalization Service , which was part of the Department of Justice...
accepts H1-B visa applications no more than 6 months in advance of the requested start date, which is the start of the US fiscal year (October 1st of the previous year). Thus the first business day of April opens the H1-B visa application window.
For FY2008, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security . It performs many administrative functions formerly carried out by the legacy United States Immigration and Naturalization Service , which was part of the Department of Justice...
has announced that on the first day that H-1B visa applications would be accepted (Monday, April 2, 2007), it had already received 150,000 applications, more than twice as much as the 65,000 cap. Per agency rules, when the limit is reached on the first day of filing, all applications received on the first two days are put into a lottery to determine allocation of the available visas.
In 2008, the US 2009 fiscal year H-1B visa quota was reached one week into the application process. For FY 2010, USCIS announced on December 22, 2009 that the quota had been filled.. For FY 2011, final receipt date for new H1-B petitions was January 26, 2011. For FY 2012, as of August 15, 2011, only 25,300 petitions had been filed against the cap of 65,000.
In 2008, a total of 276,252 visa applications (initial, renewals and extensions) were approved, and in 2009 that number decreased slightly to 214,271 and 110,367 initial H-1B visas were issued from consular offices . The American Immigration Lawyers Association
American Immigration Lawyers Association
- About AILA :The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the United States' immigration bar association. AILA is a non-profit organization that consists of lawyers and law professors that are dedicated to the practice and teaching of immigration law. Its member attorneys represent U.S....
(AILA), described the situation as a crisis, and the situation was reported on by the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
and Washington Post. Employers applied pressure on congress. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates testified in 2007 on behalf of the expanded visa program on Capitol Hill, "warning of dangers to the [U. S. economy] if employers can't import skilled workers to fill job gaps". Congress considered a bill to address the claims of shortfall, but in the end did not revise the program.
Employer attestations to protect U.S. workers
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for ensuring that foreign workers do not displace or adversely affect wages or working conditions of U.S. workers.While an employer is not required to advertise the position before hiring an H-1B non-immigrant pursuant to the H-1B visa approval, the employer is required to notify the employee representative about the LCA (Labor Condition Application) or if there is no such representation then the employer is required to publish that LCA at the workplace and the employer's office.
Employers must attest that wages offered are at least equal to the actual wage paid by the employer to other workers with similar experience and qualifications for the job in question, or alternatively, pay the prevailing wage
Prevailing wage
In government contracting, a prevailing wage is defined as the hourly wage, usual benefits and overtime, paid to the majority of workers, laborers, and mechanics within a particular area. Prevailing wages are established by regulatory agencies for each trade and occupation employed in the...
for the occupation in the area of intended employment, whichever is greater. By signing the LCA, the employer attests that: prevailing wage rate for area of employment will be paid; working conditions of position will not adversely affect conditions of similarly employed American workers; place of employment not experiencing labor dispute involving a strike or lockout; and that the foreign employee will be given benefits comparable to those offered to its other workers with similar jobs.
The law requires H-1B workers to be paid the higher of the prevailing wage for the same occupation and geographic location, or the same as the employer pays to similarly situated employees. Other factors, such as age and skill were not permitted to be taken into account for the prevailing wage. Congress changed the program in 2004 to require the Department of Labor to provide four skill-based prevailing wage levels for employers to use. This is the only prevailing wage mechanism the law permits that incorporates factors other than occupation and location.
The approval process for these applications are based on employer attestations and documentary evidence submitted. The employer is advised of their liability if they are replacing a US worker.
H-1B fees earmarked for U.S. worker education and training
In 2007, the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA), reported on two programs, the High Growth Training Initiative and Workforce Innovation Regional Economic Development (WIRED), which have received or will receive $284 million and $260 million, respectively, from H-1B training fees to educate and train U.S. workersIncome taxation status of H-1B workers
The taxation of income for H-1B employees depends on whether they are categorized for tax purposes as either non-resident aliens or resident aliens. A non-resident alien for tax purposes is only taxed on income from the United States, while a resident alien for tax purposes is taxed on income from both inside and outside the United States.The classification is determined based on the "substantial presence test": If the substantial presence test indicates that the H-1B visa holder is a resident, then income taxation is like any other U.S. person and may be filed using Form 1040 and the necessary schedules; otherwise, the visa-holder must file as a non-resident alien using tax form 1040NR or 1040NR-EZ; he or she may claim benefit from tax treaties
Tax treaty
Many countries have agreed with other countries in treaties to mitigate the effects of double taxation . Tax treaties may cover income taxes, inheritance taxes, value added taxes, or other taxes...
if they exist between the United States and the visa holder's country of citizenship.
Persons who are in their first year within the United States may choose to be considered a resident for taxation purposes for the entire year, and must pay taxes on their worldwide income for that year. This "First Year Choice" is described in IRS Publication 519 and can only be made once in a person's lifetime.
A spouse, regardless of visa status, must have a valid Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number is a United States tax processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service. It is a nine-digit number that begins with the number 9 and has a range of 70 to 99 in the fourth and fifth digit, example 9XX-70-XXXX or 9XX-99-XXXX...
(ITIN) or Social Security number
Social Security number
In the United States, a Social Security number is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents under section 205 of the Social Security Act, codified as . The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration, an independent...
(SSN) in order to be included on a joint tax return with the H-1B holder.
The rules to file taxes for H-1B holders may be complex, depending on the individual situation. Besides consulting a professional tax preparer knowledgeable about the rules for foreigners, the IRS Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens, may be consulted.
H-1B employment
According to the USCIS, "H-1B aliens may only work for the petitioning U.S. employer and only in the H-1B activities described in the petition. The petitioning U.S. employer may place the H-1B worker on the worksite of another employer if all applicable rules (e.g., Department of Labor rules) are followed. H-1B aliens may work for more than one U.S. employer, but must have a Form I-129 petition approved by each employer."H-1B visa holders pay Medicare
Medicare (United States)
Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over; to those who are under 65 and are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability; or to those who meet other...
and Social Security taxes, and are eligible for Social Security benefits. They also pay state and federal taxes.
U.S. policy on maximum duration
The maximum duration of the H-1B visa is six years (ten years for exceptional Defense Department project-related work). H-1B holders who want to continue to work in the U.S. after six years, but who have not obtained permanent residency status, must remain outside of the U.S. for one year before reapplying for another H-1B visa.There are generally two exceptions to the six-year duration of the H-1B visa:
- If a visa holder has submitted an I-140 immigrant petition or a labor certification prior to their fifth year anniversary of having the H-1B visa, they are entitled to renew their H-1B visa in one-year or three-year increments until a decision has been rendered on their application for permanent residence.
- If the visa holder has an approved I-140 immigrant petition, but is unable to initiate the final step of the green cardUnited States Permanent Resident CardUnited States lawful permanent residency refers to a person's immigration status: the person is authorized to live and work in the United States of America on a permanent basis....
process due to their priority datePriority datePriority date is a United States immigration concept - it is the date of filling for labor certification.A common path to the green card in the United States is to obtain it through a family based or employment based petition, a very complex process that can take many years to complete. When a...
not being current, they may be entitled to a three-year extension of their H-1B visa. This exception originated with the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000.
H-1B and legal immigration
Even though the H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa, it is one of the few visa categories recognized as dual intentDual intent
Dual intent is a United States immigration law concept. It generally refers to the fact that certain U.S. visas allow foreigners to be temporarily present in the U.S. with lawful status and immigrant intent. This allows those visa holders, particularly H-1B professionals, to enter the U.S...
, meaning an H-1B holder can have legal immigration intent (apply for and obtain the green card
United States Permanent Resident Card
United States lawful permanent residency refers to a person's immigration status: the person is authorized to live and work in the United States of America on a permanent basis....
) while still a holder of the visa. In the past the employment-based green card process used to take only a few years, less than the duration of the H-1B visa itself. However, in recent times the legal employment-based immigration process has backlogged and retrogressed to the extent that it now takes many years for skilled professional applicants from certain countries to obtain their green cards. Since the duration of the H-1B visa hasn't changed, this has meant a lot more H-1B visa holders have to renew their visas in one-year or three-year increments to continue to be in legal status while their green card application is in process.
Quotas and changes in quotas
The number of new H-1Bs issued each year in the United States is subject to an annual congressionally mandated quota. Each H-1B quota applies to a particular Financial Year which begins on October 1. Applications for the upcoming Financial Year are accepted beginning on the preceding April 1 (or the first working day after that date). Beneficiaries not subject to the annual quota are those who currently hold H-1B status or have held H-1B status at some point in the past six years. This annual quota has had a significant impact on the high techHigh tech
High tech is technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology currently available. It is often used in reference to micro-electronics, rather than other technologies. The adjective form is hyphenated: high-tech or high-technology...
industry. It has generally been set at 65,000 visas per year, with some exceptions for workers at exempt organizations like universities and colleges (note: contrary to popular belief, non-profit organizations are not automatically exempt, but may be so if affiliated with a university or college). In 2000, Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
permanently exempted H-1B visas going to Universities and Government Research Laboratories from the quota.
During the early years of this quota in the early 1990s, this quota was rarely actually reached. By the mid-1990s, however, the quota tended to be filled each year on a first come, first served basis, resulting in new H-1Bs often being denied or delayed because the annual quota was already filled. In 1998 the quota was increased first to 115,000 and then, in 2000, to 195,000 visas per year. During the years the quota was 195,000, it was never reached.
In FY 2004, the quota reverted to 90,000 when the temporary increase passed by Congress in 1999 expired. Since then, the quota is again filling up rapidly every year, making H-1Bs again increasingly hard to get. More recently, the basic quota was left at 65,000 but with an additional 20,000 visas possible for foreign workers with U.S. advanced degrees. Of the 65,000 total, 6,800 are initially reserved for citizens of Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
under free trade agreements with those countries; however, if these reserved visas are not used under the agreements, they go back to the general pool. Outside of the 65,000 quota, another 10,500 visas annually are available to Australian citizens under a similar but more flexible program, the E-3 visa
E-3 visa
The E-3 visa is a United States visa for which only citizens of Australia are eligible. It was created by an Act of the United States Congress as a result of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement , although it is not formally a part of the AUSFTA. The legislation creating the E-3 visa...
program.
For FY 2007, beginning on October 1, 2006, the entire quota of visas for the year was exhausted within a span of less than 2 months on May 26, 2006, well before the beginning of the financial year concerned. The additional 20,000 Advanced Degree H-1B visas were exhausted on July 26.
In its annual report on H-1B visas released in November 2006, USCIS stated that it approved 131,000 H-1B visas in FY 2004 and 117,000 in FY 2005. The inflation in numbers is because H-1B visas can be exempt from the caps if the employer is a University or Research Lab.
For FY 2008, the entire quota was exhausted before the end of the first day on which applications were accepted, April 2. Under USCIS rules, the 123,480 petitions received on April 2 and April 3 that were subject to the cap were pooled, and then 65,000 of these were selected at random for further processing. The additional 20,000 Advanced Degree H-1B visas for FY 2008 was exhausted on April 30.
For FY 2009, USCIS announced on April 8, 2008 that the entire quota for visas for the year has been reached, for both 20,000 Advanced and the 65,000 quota. USCIS would complete initial data entry for all filing received during April 1 to April 7, 2008 before running the lottery.
For FY 2010, USCIS announced on December 21, 2009, that enough petitions were received to reach the year quota.
For FY 2011, USCIS announced on January 27, 2011, that enough petitions were received to reach the year quota on January 26.
For FY 2012, USCIS announced on November 23, 2011, that enough petitions were received to reach the year quota on November 22.
H-1B-dependent employers
Recent H-1B legislation requires certain employers, called H-1B dependent employers to advertise positions in the USA before petitioning to employ H-1B workers for those positions. These requirements do not apply when hiring an exempt H-1B nonimmigrantExempt H-1B nonimmigrant
In United States immigration law, an Exempt H-1B nonimmigrant visa is an H-1B visa which can be granted to a worker whose annual salary is at least $60,000, or holds a Master's degree or higher in a field related to the intended area of employment....
For firms of 50 employees, an H-1B dependent employer is defined as having more than 15% of their employees in H-1B status. Smaller firms are allowed to have a higher percentage of H-1B employees before becoming 'dependent'.
Criticisms of the program
The H-1B program has caused a number of criticisms.Employees made to pay H1-B sponsorship costs
Although the practice is unlawful, it is widely believed that some employers make their H1-B employees pay for most, all or in excess, of the costs associated with sponsoring and processing an H1-B application. These fees are usually under the guise of bond or other instruments, in an attempt to serve as a legal workaround to the law.No labor shortages
Paul Donnelly, in a 2002 article in ComputerworldComputerworld
Computerworld is an IT magazine that provides information for senior IT leaders. It is published in many countries around the world under the same or similar names. Its publisher is International Data Group. Computerworld serves the needs of IT management via print and online...
, cited Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...
as stating that the H-1B program acts as a subsidy for corporations. Others holding this view include Dr. Norman Matloff
Norman Matloff
Norman Saul Matloff is a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1975 from the mathematics department at the University of California, Los Angeles under the supervision of Thomas M...
, who testified to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration on the H-1B subject. Matloff's paper for the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform claims that there has been no shortage of qualified American citizens to fill American computer-related jobs, and that the data offered as evidence of American corporations needing H-1B visas to address labor shortages was erroneous. The United States General Accounting Office found in a report in 2000 that controls on the H-1B program lacked effectiveness. The GAO report's recommendations were subsequently implemented. High-tech companies often cite a tech-worker shortage when asking Congress to raise the 65,000 annual cap on H-1B visas, but according to a study conducted by John Miano and the Center for Immigration Studies there is no empirical data to support that claim. Citing studies done at Duke, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Georgetown University and others, critics have also argued that in some years, the number of foreign programmers and engineers imported outnumbered the number of jobs created by the industry. Organizations have also posted hundreds of first hand accounts of H1-B Visa Harm reports directly from individuals negatively impacted by the program, many of whom are willing to speak with the media.
Relatively low skills required
Another criticism of the H-1B program is its vague eligibility requirements, but specific guidelines, upheld by a body of case law, define the requirements. While frequently described as a program for highly skilled workers, the H-1B nonimmigrant visa category specifically applies to specialty occupations. It can be argued that any job that requires a minimum of a bachelor's degree is "highly skilled".Specialty occupations have been defined as positions that require theoretical or technical expertise in a specialized field and have generally been interpreted as being those that normally require the attainment of a Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
. Typical H-1B occupations include architects, engineers, computer programmers, accountants, doctors
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, veterinarian
Veterinarian
A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....
, dentist
Dentist
A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...
, registered nurse
Registered nurse
A registered nurse is a nurse who has graduated from a nursing program at a university or college and has passed a national licensing exam. A registered nurse helps individuals, families, and groups to achieve health and prevent disease...
, business managers, and college professors. The H-1B visa program also includes fashion models
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
.
Wage depression
Wage depression is a chronic complaint critics have about the H-1B program: some studies have found that H-1B workers are paid significantly less than U.S. workers. It is claimed that the H-1B program is primarily used as a source of cheap labor. A paper by Harvard Professor George J. BorjasGeorge J. Borjas
George Jesus Borjas is an American economist and the Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is most well known for his advocacy of reducing the rates of immigration to the United States.- Personal life and education :Borjas was born in Havana,...
for the National Bureau of Economic Research
National Bureau of Economic Research
The National Bureau of Economic Research is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community." The NBER is well known for providing start and end...
found that "a 10 percent immigration-induced increase in the supply of doctorates lowers the wage of competing workers by about 3 to 4 percent."
The LCA included in the H-1B petition is supposed to ensure that H-1B workers are paid the prevailing wage in the labor market, or the employer's actual average wage (whichever is higher), but evidence exists that some employers do not abide by these provisions and avoid paying the actual prevailing wage despite stiff penalties for abusers.
DOL has split the prevailing wage into four levels, with Level One representing about the 17th percentile of wage average Americans earn. About 80 percent of LCAs are filed at this 17th percentile level. This four-level prevailing wage can be obtained the DOL website, and is generally far lower than average wages.
The "prevailing wage" stipulation is allegedly vague and thus easy to manipulate, resulting in employers underpaying visa workers. According to Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, the median wage in 2005 for new H-1B information technology (IT) was just $50,000, which is even lower than starting wages for IT graduates with a B.S. degree. The U.S. government OES office's data indicates that 90 percent of H-1B IT wages were below the median U.S. wage for the same occupation.
In 2002, the U.S. government began an investigation into Sun Microsystems' hiring practices after an ex-employee, Guy Santiglia, filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Labor alleging that the Santa Clara
Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
firm discriminates against American citizens in favor of foreign workers on H-1B visas. Santiglia accused the company of bias against U.S. citizens when it laid off 3,900 workers in late 2001 and at the same time applied for thousands of visas. In 2002, about 5 percent of Sun's 39,000 employees had temporary work visas, he said. In 2005, it was decided that Sun violated only minor requirements and that neither of these violations was substantial or willful. Thus, the judge only ordered Sun to change its posting practices.
Hidden costs and risks for employers
Although, lower wages do not necessarily mean lower costs for employers. The costs for a company to apply for an H-1B visa can be significant, and it can vary between $1,440 and $5,000 as the H1B fee was increased by $2000 for petitioners who employ 50 or more employees in the United States with more than 50 percent of its employees in the United States in H-1B or L (including L-1A, L-1B and L-2) nonimmigrant status from August 14, 2010 as President Obama signed into law Public Law 111-230, depending on the attorney's fees (if used), the number of employees in the company, and if a faster premium service is paid, without including the cost of a possible trip to the border of the country of origin, nor the renewal costs. Besides that, there is no guarantee that the prospective employee will be granted the visa due to high demand, and the expenses are sometimes non-refundable. In addition to that, if the employer should dismiss the employee, the company is liable for any reasonable costs associated with relocation back to the employee's last foreign residence. This provision covers only dismissal; it is not relevant when an employee chooses to resign.Risks for employees
Historically, H-1B holders have sometimes been described as indentured servants, and while the comparison is no longer as compelling, it had more validity prior to the passage of American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000. Although immigration generally requires short- and long-term visitors to disavow any ambition to seek the green card (permanent residency), H-1B visa holders are an important exception, in that the H-1B is legally acknowledged as a possible step towards a green card under what is called the doctrine of dual intentDual intent
Dual intent is a United States immigration law concept. It generally refers to the fact that certain U.S. visas allow foreigners to be temporarily present in the U.S. with lawful status and immigrant intent. This allows those visa holders, particularly H-1B professionals, to enter the U.S...
.
H-1B visa holders may be sponsored for their green cards by their employers through an Application for Alien Labor Certification, filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. In the past, the sponsorship process has taken several years, and for much of that time the H-1B visa holder was unable to change jobs without losing their place in line for the green card. This created an element of enforced loyalty to an employer by an H-1B visa holder. Critics alleged that employers benefit from this enforced loyalty because it reduced the risk that the H-1B employee might leave the job and go work for a competitor, and that it put citizen workers at a disadvantage in the job market, since the employer has less assurance that the citizen will stay at his job for an extended period of time, especially if the work conditions are tough, wages are lower or the work is difficult or complex. It has been argued that this makes the H-1B program extremely attractive to employers, and that labor legislation in this regard has been influenced by corporations seeking and benefiting from such advantages.
Some recent news reports suggest that the recession started in 2008 will exacerbate the H-1B visa situation, both for supporters of the program and for those who oppose it. The process to obtain the green card has become so long, that during these recession years it has not been unusual that sponsoring companies fail and disappear, thus forcing the H-1B employee to find another sponsor, and losing their place in line for the green card. An H-1B employee could be just one month from obtaining their green card, but if the employee is laid off, he or she may have to leave the country, or go to the end of the line and start over the process to get the green card, and wait as much as 10 more years, depending on the nationality and visa category.
The American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 provides some relief for people waiting for a long time for a green card, by allowing H-1B extensions past the normal 6 years, as well as by making it easier to change the sponsoring employer.
Fraud by Employers and Applicants
The U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES "H-1B Benefit Fraud & Compliance Assessment" of September 2008 concluded 21% of H1-B visa granted originate from fraudulent applications or applications with technical violations. Fraud was defined as a willful misrepresentation, falsification, or omission of a material fact. Technical violations, errors, omissions, and failures to comply that are not within the fraud definition were included in the 21% rate.Subsequently, USCIS has made procedural changes to reduce the number of fraud and technical violations on H-1B applications.
The Outsourcing Visa
In his floor statement on H-1B Visa Reform, Senator Dick Durbin stated "The H-1B visa job lasts for 3 years and can be renewed for 3 years. What happens to those workers after that? Well, they could stay. It is possible. But these new companies have a much better idea for making money. They send the engineers to America to fill spots--and get money to do it--and then after the 3 to 6 years, they bring them back to work for the companies that are competing with American companies. They call it their outsourcing visa. They are sending their talented engineers to learn how Americans do business and then bring them back and compete with those American companies." Critics of H-1B use for outsourcing have also noted that more H1-B visas are granted to companies headquartered in India than companies headquartered in the United States.Payment of out-of-state tuition
In most states, H-1B workers and their dependents do not qualify for in-state tuition regardless of the amount of time spent in the US. However, for more than a decade, a few states such as California, New York, Washington and Texas have extended in-state tuition to H-1B workers and dependents. Typically the decision to offer in-state tuition to H-1B and H4 residents is taken as a result of an adverse state court decision that uses the precedent established for G-4 visas in the Supreme Court decision in TOLL v. MORENO, 441 U.S. 458 (1979).Social Security and Medicare taxes
H1B employees have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes as part of their payroll. Like US citizens, they are eligible to receive Social Security benefits even if they leave the United States, provided they have paid Social Security benefits for at least 10 years. Further, the US has bilateral agreements with several countries to ensure that the time paid into the US Social Security system, even if it is less than 10 years, is taken into account in the foreign country's comparable system and vice versa.Spouses cannot work
The spouse of a H-1B visa holder who generally comes on H-4 (dependent) visa cannot work in the United States.Unrealistic Departure Requirement on Job Loss
If an H-1B worker is laid off for any reason, the H-1B program technically does not specify a time allowance or grace period to round up one's affairs irrespective of how long the H-1B worker might have lived in the United States. To round up one's affairs, filing an application to change to another non-immigrant status may therefore become a necessity.An H-1B worker who is laid off and attempts to find a new H-1B employer to file a petition for him is considered out of status if there is even a one day gap between the last day of employment and the date that the new H-1B petition is filed. While some attorneys claim that there is a grace period of 30 days, 60 days, or sometimes 10 days, that is not true according to the law. In practice, USCIS has accepted H-1B transfer applications even with a gap in employment up to 60 days, but that is by no means guaranteed.
Some of the confusion regarding the "grace period" arose because there is a 10 day grace period for an H-1B worker to depart the United States at the end of his authorized period of stay (does not apply for laid-off workers). This grace period only applies if the worker works until the H-1B expiration date listed on his I-797 approval notice, or I-94 card. 8 CFR 214.2(h)(13)(i)(A).
The employer has the legal obligation to pay for the laid-off worker's return transportation.
Administrative processing
When an H-1B worker goes outside of US for vacation, he or she has to get the visa stamped on his passport unless he has already done so for re-entry in the United States. The interview is taken in US Embassy by a visa officer. In some cases, H-1B workers can be required to undergo "administrative processing", involving extra, lengthy background checks. Under current rules, these checks are supposed to take ten days or less, but in some cases, have lasted years.Worker protection and law enforcement
For every H-1B petition filed with the USCIS, there must be included a Labor Condition Application (LCA) certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. The LCA is designed to ensure that the wage offered to the non-immigrant worker must meet or exceed the "prevailing wage" in the area of employment. The LCA also contains an attestation section designed to prevent the program from being used to import foreign workers for the purpose of breaking a strike, or for the purpose of replacing U.S. citizen workers. Under the regulations, LCAs are a matter of public record. Corporations hiring H-1B workers are required to make these records available to any member of the public who requests to look at them. Copies of the relevant records are also available from various web sites, including the Department of Labor.Theoretically, the LCA process appears to offer protection to both U.S. and H-1B workers. However, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office, enforcement limitations and procedural problems render these protections ineffective. Ultimately, the employer, not the Department of Labor, determines what source it will use to determine the prevailing wage for an offered position, and it may choose among a variety of competing surveys, including its own wage surveys, provided that such surveys follow certain defined rules and regulations.
The law specifically restricts the Department of Labor's approval process of LCAs to checking for "completeness and obvious inaccuracies". In FY 2005, only about 800 LCAs were rejected out of over 300,000 submitted. Hire Americans First has posted several hundred first hand accounts of H1-B Visa Harm reports directly from individuals negatively impacted by the program, many of whom are willing to speak with the media.
Enforcement is substandard and there are reports of abusers surviving INS audits unscathed.
In 2009 Federal authorities busted a nationwide H-1B Visa Scam. In October 2008, a USCIS report found that the H-1B program has more than a 20 percent violation rate.
American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000
The American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 (AC21) and the U.S. Department of Labor's PERM system for labor certification erased most of the earlier claimed arguments for H-1B's as indentured servants during the green card process. With PERM, labor certification processing times are now approx 9 months (as of Mar 2010).Because of AC21, the H-1B employee is free to change jobs if they have an I-485 application pending for six months and an approved I-140, if the position they are moving to is substantially comparable to their current position. In some cases, if those labor certifications are withdrawn and replaced with PERM applications, processing times will improve, but the person will also lose their favorable priority date
Priority date
Priority date is a United States immigration concept - it is the date of filling for labor certification.A common path to the green card in the United States is to obtain it through a family based or employment based petition, a very complex process that can take many years to complete. When a...
. In those cases, employers' incentive to attempt to lock in H-1B employees to a job by offering a green card is reduced, because the employer bears the high legal costs and fees associated with labor certification and I-140 processing, but the H-1B employee is still free to change jobs.
However, many people are ineligible to file I-485 at the current time due to the widespread retrogression in priority dates. Thus, they may well still be stuck with their sponsoring employer for many years. There are also many old labor certification
Labor certification
Labor certification is a United States of America immigration concept. There are several options available to US employers who wish to hire foreign, non-immigrant workers on a temporary but long-term basis: H-1B visas, L-1 visas, TN status and other options. These temporary options are often...
cases pending under pre-PERM rules.
On May 25, 2006 the U.S. Senate passed immigration bill 2611, which contained several increases in the number of H-1B visas, including:
- Raising the base quota from 65,000 to 115,000,
- Automatically increasing the base quota by 20% whenever it is reached with no provision for lowering it,
- Adding 6,800 visas for trade agreements separate from the base quota,
- Adding 20,000 visas for those with foreign graduate degrees,
- Raising from 20,000 to unlimited the number of visas for those with U.S. graduate degrees, and
- Making visas to non-profit organizations exempt from the quota.
However, as the House refused to consider the measure, it died in conference and no H-1B increase was approved in time for the elections.
The USCIS has announced that after completing a policy review that it was clarifying that to avoid H-1B quota limits, individuals who spent one year outside of U.S. and did not exhaust their entire six year term can choose to be re-admitted for “remainder” of initial six-year period without being subject to the H-1B cap.
The USCIS has also announced that after completing a policy review that it was clarifying that “any time spent in H-4 status will not count against the six-year maximum period of admission applicable to H-1B aliens.
On May 24, 2007, the Senate considered amendments to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill (S. 1348) including the Sanders Amendment to increase the H-1B Scholarship & Training Fee from $1500 to $8500 (for H-1B employers with more than 25 full time employees). The additional fee was to be used for training and scholarship programs and in addition to other existing fees. Senator Sanders listed the Teamsters Union and the AFL-CIO among supporters of his amendment. Without this amendment, Senator Sanders (I-VT) said, "skilled middle class and upper middle class Americans" would be hurt, and their wages would continue to be suppressed. Just prior to the vote, Senator Sanders announced that he had made changes to his amendment, dropping the fee for H-1B visas from the $8500 he proposed earlier, down to $5000. Following Senator Sanders’ announcement, Senators Kennedy and Specter expressed their support for the bill and the amendment passed by a vote of 59–35. Compete America
Compete America
Compete America, The Alliance for a Competitive Workforce, is a coalition representing corporations, universities, research institutions and trade associations that advocates for reform of U.S...
, a coalition of U.S. tech companies, reported the passage of the Sanders amendment will "accelerate outsourcing and undermine U.S. economic growth."
The Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008
Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008
The Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 was an act passed in the 110th United States Congress and enacted on May 8, 2008.-Legislative history:...
, which, among other issues, federalizes immigration in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, stipulates that during a transition period, numerical limitations will not apply to otherwise qualified workers in the H visa category in the CNMI and Guam.
On Feb. 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, abbreviated ARRA and commonly referred to as the Stimulus or The Recovery Act, is an economic stimulus package enacted by the 111th United States Congress in February 2009 and signed into law on February 17, 2009, by President Barack Obama.To...
(“stimulus bill”), Public Law 111-5. Section 1661 of the ARRA incorporates the Employ American Workers Act (“EAWA”) by Senators Sanders (I-Vt.) and Grassley (R-Iowa) to limit certain banks and other financial institutions from hiring H-1B workers unless they had offered positions to equally or better-qualified US workers, and to prevent banks from hiring H-1B workers in occupations they had laid off US workers from. These restrictions include:
- The employer must, prior to filing the H-1B petition, take good-faith steps to recruit U.S. workers for the position for which the H-1B worker is sought, offering a wage at least as high as what the law requires for the H-1B worker. The employer must also attest that, in connection with this recruitment, it has offered the job to any U.S. worker who applies who is equally or better qualified for the position.
- The employer must not have laid off, and will not lay off, any U.S. worker in a job essentially equivalent to the H-1B position in the area of intended employment of the H-1B worker within the period beginning 90 days prior to the filing of the H-1B petition and ending 90 days after its filing.
Recent Changes to U.S. Policy
USCIS (U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services) recently issued a memorandum dated 8 Jan 2010. The memorandum effectively states that there must be a clear "employee employer relationship" between the petitioner (employer) and the beneficiary (potential Visa holder). It simply outlines what the employer must do to be considered in compliance as well as putting forth the documentation requirements to back up the employer's assertion that a valid relationship exists.Some argue that this has effectively "killed the job-shop industry". While it is clear that the number of Visa petitions granted has declined (or is slower than normal to reach the full quota), it is not clear whether or not this is a result of simple political pressure to put the program on "hold", or a long-term result from real economic realities. The memorandum gives three clear examples of what is and is NOT considered a valid "employee employer relationship".
- an accountant working on and off-site to work
- a fashion model
- a computer software engineer working off-site
In the case of the software engineer the petitioner (employer) must simply agree to do (some of) the following among others:
- supervise the beneficiary off-site & on-site
- maintain such supervision through calls, reports, or visits
- have a "right" to control the work on a day-to-day basis if such control is required.
- provide tools for the job
- hire, pay and have the ability to fire the beneficiary
- evaluate work products and perform progress/performance reviews
- claim them for tax purposes
- provide (some type of) employee benefits
- use "proprietary information" to perform work
- produce an end product related to the business
- have an "ability to" control the manner and means in which the work product is accomplished.
It further states that "common law is flexible" in how these factors are to be weighed.
Although this memorandum cites legal cases and provides examples, such a memorandum in itself is not law and future memoranda could easily be issued that could change this.
Similar programs
In addition to H-1B visas, there are a variety of other visa categories that allow foreign workers to come into the U.S. to work for some period of time.L-1 visa
L-1 visa
An L-1 visa is a visa document used to enter the United States for the purpose of work in L-1 status. It is a non-immigrant visa, and is valid for a short amount of time, generally three years. L-1 visas are available to employees of an international company with offices in both the United States...
s are issued to foreign employees of a corporation. Under recent rules, the foreign worker must have worked for the corporation for at least one year in the preceding three years prior to getting the visa. An L-1B visa is appropriate for nonimmigrant workers who are being temporarily transferred to the United States based on their specialized knowledge of the company's techniques and methodologies. An L-1A visa is for managers or executives who will either manage people or an essential function of the company. There is no requirement to pay prevailing wages for the L-1 visa holders. For Canadian residents, a special L visa category is available.
TN-1 visas
TN status
TN status is a special non-immigrant status in the United States unique to citizens of Canada and Mexico. Professions identified in the Canada - United States Free Trade Agreement which began in 1988 are permitted TN Visas for legal work in the United States and Canada, creating freedom of labor...
are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
(NAFTA), and are issued to Canadian and Mexican citizens. TN visas are only available to workers who fall into one of a pre-set list of occupations determined by the NAFTA treaty. There are specific eligibility requirements for the TN Visa.
E-3 visa
E-3 visa
The E-3 visa is a United States visa for which only citizens of Australia are eligible. It was created by an Act of the United States Congress as a result of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement , although it is not formally a part of the AUSFTA. The legislation creating the E-3 visa...
s are issued to citizens of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
under the Australia free-trade treaty.
H-1B1 visas are issued to residents of Chile and Singapore under the amended NAFTA treaty.
One recent trend in work visas is that various countries attempt to get special preference for their nationals as part of treaty negotiations. Another trend is for changes in immigration law to be embedded in large Authorization or Omnibus bills to avoid the controversy that might accompany a separate vote.
H-2B visa
H-2B visa
The H-2B visa nonimmigrant program permits employers to hire foreign workers to come temporarily to the U.S. and perform temporary nonagricultural services or labor on a one-time, seasonal, peakload or intermittent basis....
: The H-2B nonimmigrant program permits employers to hire foreign workers to come to the U.S. and perform temporary nonagricultural work, which may be one-time, seasonal, peak load or intermittent. There is a 66,000 per year limit on the number of foreign workers who may receive H-2B status
Alternatives to H-1B visa:
- Green Card for medical doctors and physicians.
- Pre-requisite: National Interest Waiver.
- Alternatively, a Medical Doctor or Physician may enter the U.S. for a temporary period through a temporary visa.
- Green Cards for Nurses and Physical Therapists . (Link is broken)
- Employment Visa for Professors and Researchers. (Link is broken)
Dependents of H-1B visa holders
H-1B visa holders are allowed to bring their immediate family members (spouse and children under 21) to the United States under the H4 Visa category as dependents. An H4 Visa holder may remain in the U.S. as long as the H-1B visa holder remains in legal status. An H4 visa holder is not eligible to work in the U.S. and is not eligible for a Social Security numberSocial Security number
In the United States, a Social Security number is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents under section 205 of the Social Security Act, codified as . The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration, an independent...
(SSN). An H4 Visa holder may attend school, obtain a driver's license and open a bank account while in the US. In order to claim a dependent on a tax return or file a joint tax return, the dependent will have to obtain an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) which is used only for tax filing purposes.
H-1B demographics
Of all Computer Systems AnalystsComputer Systems Analysts
A computer systems analyst is an occupation in the field of information technology. A computer systems analyst works to solve problems related to computer technology. Many analysts setup new computer systems, both the hardware and software, add new software applications to increase computer...
and programmers on H-1B visas in the US, 74 percent were from Asia. This large scale migration of Asian IT professionals to the United States has been cited as a central cause of the quick emergence of the offshore outsourcing industry.
H-1B Applications Approved
| Year | Initial | Renewals+Extensions | Total |
| 1999 | 134.411 | na | na |
| 2000 | 136.787 | 120.853 | 257.64 |
| 2001 | 201.079 | 130.127 | 331.206 |
| 2002 | 103.584 | 93.953 | 197.537 |
| 2003 | 105.314 | 112.026 | 217.34 |
| 2004 | 130.497 | 156.921 | 287.418 |
| 2005 | 116.927 | 150.204 | 267.131 |
| 2006 | 109.614 | 161.367 | 270.981 |
| 2007 | 120.031 | 161.413 | 281.444 |
| 2008 | 109.335 | 166.917 | 276.252 |
| 2009 | 86.3 | 127.971 | 214.271 |
| Year | Lacking equivalent of US high school diploma | Lacking equivalent of US bachelor degree |
| 2000 | 554 | 2,986 |
| 2001 | 247 | 3,983 |
| 2002 | 169 | 2,655 |
| 2003 | 148 | 2,249 |
| 2004 | 123 | 1,803 |
| 2005 | 107 | 1,345 |
| 2006 | 96 | 914 |
| 2007 | 72 | 913 |
| 2008 | 72 | 643 |
| 2009 | 80 | 829 |
H-1B Visas Issued
| Year | H-1B | H-1B1 |
| 1990 | 794 | na |
| 1991 | 51,882 | na |
| 1992 | 44,290 | na |
| 1993 | 35,818 | na |
| 1994 | 42,843 | na |
| 1995 | 51,832 | na |
| 1996 | 58,327 | na |
| 1997 | 80,547 | na |
| 1998 | 91,360 | na |
| 1999 | 116,513 | na |
| 2000 | 133,290 | na |
| 2001 | 161,643 | na |
| 2002 | 118,352 | na |
| 2003 | 107,196 | na |
| 2004 | 138,965 | 72 |
| 2005 | 124,099 | 275 |
| 2006 | 135,421 | 440 |
| 2007 | 154,053 | 639 |
| 2008 | 129,464 | 719 |
| 2009 | 110,367 | 621 |
| 2010 | 117,409 | 419 |
Usage of H-1B by outsourcing firms
In 2006, these firms collectively were issued 19,512 of the 65,000 H-1B visas granted, with 4 outsourcing firms among the top 5 receivers of H-1B visas. Among the top of the list were some of the most well known outsourcing firms: InfosysInfosys
Infosys Limited, formerly Infosys Technologies Limited is a global technology services company headquartered in Bangalore, India. It is the second largest IT exporter in India with 133,560 employees as of March 2011. It has offices in 33 countries and development centers in India, China,...
, Satyam Computer Services, Tata Consultancy Services
Tata Consultancy Services
Tata Consultancy Services Limited is a global IT services, business solutions and outsourcing company headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is the largest provider of information technology in Asia and second largest provider of business process outsourcing services in India...
, and Wipro Technologies. Critics have argued that granting H-1B visas to these outsourcing firms is not the real intent of the H-1B Visa program. One reason given is: Critics claim that the Indian firms skirt regulations and use the visas to train workers in the U.S. to facilitate moving jobs offshore.
In 2006, Wipro applied for 20,000 H-1B visas and 160 Green Cards; and Infosys
Infosys
Infosys Limited, formerly Infosys Technologies Limited is a global technology services company headquartered in Bangalore, India. It is the second largest IT exporter in India with 133,560 employees as of March 2011. It has offices in 33 countries and development centers in India, China,...
applied for 20,000 H-1B visas and only 50 Green Cards. Of the Applied H-1B visas, Wipro and Infosys were granted, 4,002 and 4,108 visas respectively, an acceptance rate of 20% and 24%. Given that both companies have a work force of approximately 100,000 employees, and a U.S. employment base of roughly 20,000 H-1B holders, this indicates that roughly 1/5 of the Indian workforce of Infosys & Wipro applied for a visa in 2006. A 2009 Business Week article cited a ComputerWorld article indicating that Wipro was the top user of the program with 1,964 Visas.
Critics have argued against this trend, stating that there is no dearth of qualified workers in the United States.
In 2009, due to the worldwide recession, applications for H1B visas by outsourcing firms were significantly lower than in previous years.
Top ten H-1B rankings
| Rank | Company | Headquarters | Primary Employment Base | H-1Bs received 2006 | H-1Bs approved 2009 |
| 1, 8 | Infosys Infosys Infosys Limited, formerly Infosys Technologies Limited is a global technology services company headquartered in Bangalore, India. It is the second largest IT exporter in India with 133,560 employees as of March 2011. It has offices in 33 countries and development centers in India, China,... |
Bangalore Bangalore Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and... , Karnataka Karnataka Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava... , India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
4,908 | 440 |
| 2, 1 | Wipro Wipro Wipro Limited formally Western India Products Limited is a global IT services and consulting company headquartered in Bangalore, India. As of 2011, Wipro is the second largest IT services company by turnover in India and employs more than 120,000 people worldwide as of March 2011... |
Bangalore Bangalore Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and... , Karnataka Karnataka Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava... , India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
4,002 | 1,964 |
| 3, 2 | Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions... |
Redmond, Washington Redmond, Washington Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 54,144 at the 2010 census,up from 45,256 in 2000.... |
US United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
3,117 | 1,318 |
| 4 | Tata Consultancy Services Tata Consultancy Services Tata Consultancy Services Limited is a global IT services, business solutions and outsourcing company headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is the largest provider of information technology in Asia and second largest provider of business process outsourcing services in India... |
Mumbai Mumbai Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million... , Maharashtra Maharashtra Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India... , India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
3,047 | |
| 5, 22 | Satyam Computer Services | Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third... , India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
2,880 | 219 |
| 6, 20 | Cognizant | Teaneck Teaneck, New Jersey Teaneck is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, and a suburb in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 39,776, making it the second-most populous among the 70 municipalities in Bergen County.... , New Jersey New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware... |
India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
2,226 | 233 |
| 7, 5 | Patni Computer Systems Patni Computer Systems iGATE Patni , is a provider of Information Technology services and business solutions. The company employs over 15,000 people, and has 23 international offices across the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as offshore development centres in eight cities in India... |
Mumbai Mumbai Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million... , Maharashtra Maharashtra Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India... , India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
1,391 | 609 |
| 8, 4 | IBM IBM International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas... (India, Private Ltd.) |
Armonk Armonk, New York Armonk is a hamlet and census-designated place located in the town of North Castle in Westchester County, New York. As of the 2010 census, the CDP population was 4,330.... , New York New York New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east... |
US United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
1,130 | 695 |
| 9, 15 | Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems... |
Redwood Shores Redwood Shores, California Redwood Shores is an affluent waterfront neighborhood located in San Mateo County on the San Francisco Peninsula in California. It is located on the eastern edge of Belmont, but is actually part of incorporated Redwood City.... , California California California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area... |
US United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
1,022 | 272 |
| 10, 6 | Larsen & Toubro Infotech Larsen & Toubro Infotech Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. , one of the fastest growing IT Services companies, is ranked 10th by NASSCOM among the top software and services exporters from India in 2010... |
Mumbai Mumbai Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million... , Maharashtra Maharashtra Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India... , India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
947 | 602 |
| , 3 | Intel Corporation Intel Corporation Intel Corporation is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most... |
Santa Clara Santa Clara, California Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the... , California California California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area... |
US United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
723 | |
| , 7 | Ernst & Young LLP | London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... , United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
481 | ||
| , 8 | UST Global | Aliso Viejo Aliso Viejo, California Aliso Viejo is a city in Orange County, California. It had a population of 47,823 as of the 2010 census, up from 40,166 as of the 2000 census. It became Orange County's 34th city on July 1, 2001, the only city in the county to incorporate since 2000... , California California California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area... |
344 | ||
| , 9 | DELOITTE CONSULTING LLP | New York City New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... , New York New York New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east... |
328 | ||
| , 10 | QUALCOMM INC Qualcomm Qualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA... |
San Diego San Diego, California San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round... , California California California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area... |
320 | ||
| School | H-1Bs Received 2006 |
| New York City Public Schools | 642 |
| University of Michigan University of Michigan The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan... |
437 |
| University of Illinois at Chicago University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop... |
434 |
| University of Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution... |
432 |
| Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | 432 |
| University of Maryland University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C... |
404 |
| Columbia University Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the... |
355 |
| Yale University Yale University Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States... |
316 |
| Harvard University Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country... |
308 |
| Stanford University Stanford University The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San... |
279 |
| Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations... |
278 |
| University of Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of... |
275 |
| Company | H-1Bs Received 2006 |
| Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions... |
3517 |
| Cognizant | 2226 |
| IBM IBM International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas... |
1130 |
| Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems... |
1022 |
| Cisco Cisco Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore... |
828 |
| Intel | 828 |
| Motorola Motorola Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009... |
760 |
| Qualcomm Qualcomm Qualcomm is an American global telecommunication corporation that designs, manufactures and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services based on its code division multiple access technology and other technologies. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, USA... |
533 |
| Yahoo | 347 |
| Hewlett-Packard Hewlett-Packard Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including... |
333 |
| Google Google Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program... |
328 |
See also
- SKIL BillSKIL Bill/, also known as the “Securing Knowledge Innovation and Leadership Act of 2006”, or the “SKIL Bill” from its acronym and rhyme, is targeted at increasing legal immigration of scientific, technology, engineering, and mathematics workers into the United States by increasing the quotas on the H-1B...
- Free trade debateFree trade debateFree trade is one of the most debated topics in economics of the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. Arguments over free trade can be divided into economic, moral, and socio-political arguments. The academic debate among economists is currently settled in favor of free trade, with a consensus having...
- Labor shortageLabor shortageIn its narrowest definition, a labor shortage is an economic condition in which there are insufficient qualified candidates to fill the market-place demands for employment at any price...
- Immigration VoiceImmigration voiceImmigration Voice is a non-profit organization working to alleviate problems faced by legal high-skilled foreign workers in the United States.The mission of Immigration Voice is to organize grassroots efforts and resources to solve several problems in the employment based green card process...
- L-1 visaL-1 visaAn L-1 visa is a visa document used to enter the United States for the purpose of work in L-1 status. It is a non-immigrant visa, and is valid for a short amount of time, generally three years. L-1 visas are available to employees of an international company with offices in both the United States...
External links for H-1B information
- U.S. Department of State information on H-1B visa
- U.S. GAO Report on H-1B Problems, PDF format
- 2010 H1B Visa Reports: Top H1B Visa Sponsors by Industry, Occupation, Economic Sector and Locations
- H1B Quota Updates from USCIS
Other links
- Pittsburgh law firm's immigration video sparks an Internet firestorm, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 22, 2007
- "Lawmakers Request Investigation Into YouTube Video" Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Lamar Smith ask the Labor Department to look into a video they say documents H-1B abuse by companies. Information Week, June 21, 2007
- Oct. 2007 study by Georgetown University – The study raises questions about the use of test scores by visa-worker-seeking technology companies to claim that American citizens are not qualified.
- "America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs" – A Duke University Study