Last Friday the House Republican Study Committee sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, the Speaker of the House and Majority Leader, respectively, requesting an increase in the current H1B visa quota of 65,000 per year to 115,000. They also request a 20% yearly increase in the cap every year, assuming the previous year’s quota was met. The letter is embedded below.
The current H1B program, which allows companies to bring highly skilled foreign workers to the U.S. for up to three years. It is a primary way for Silicon Valley firms to get enough technical employees, and there is almost always demand far outstripping the artificial quotas. The 1999 and 2000 quotas were already at 115,000. 132,000 H1B visas were approved in 2004 and 117,000 in 2005. But the cap was lowered again, and the 2007 quota was reached in just two months. The 2008 quota was exhausted before the end of the first day on which applications were accepted, April 2, 2008.
H1B visas are one of the primary Federal-level issues holding Silicon Valley growth in check, and it’s something I asked each of the presidential candidates I interviewed about. Listen to the interviews here, and see each of their positions on H1Bs here.
The letter discusses the absurd situation where U.S.-educated foreigners are unable to work here after graduation: “As a country, we are effectively handing these highly-educated, extremely desirable individuals a diploma and a plane ticket. The message we are sending is “You can learn here, but you have to work in another country.”"
The letter also mentions that Microsoft opened a facility in Vancouver, Canada in 2007 exclusively to put to work foreign-born employees that could not obtain work visas. These employees would otherwise be working in Washington.
Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, which has 2,000 employees with H1B visas, is quoted in the letter: “With Congress gridlocked on immigration, it’s clear that the next Silicon Valley will not be in the United States.”
As I’ve written before, it would be really super nice if Congress could just sort of get out of the way and quit screwing around with Silicon Valley – one of the most important economic assets in the United States. I hope this letter and associated Bill – HR 1930 – is acted on (you can give your direct feedback on the Bill at that link).
check this website to see how indian companies abuse h1b visa
http://www.desicrunch.com
Nice – and good for America too!
@1 – Any good system is subject to abuse…
I think what is missed in the discussion is the positive impact of immigration on the level of innovation across all US industries..
Perhaps the only thing I’ve ever agreed with Republicans on before!
There should be more concern about educating the American Worker than bringing in more tech workers.
Many Americans can barely afford tuition and many have to put their education on hold to work for tuition to return to school
Many are joining the Military to get funds for college. In fact the Army and the Airforce are targeting cash strapped college age students via their advertising campaigns
Most of those are Black and Brown youths who will eventually be on the front line to fight Bush’s war. If they come home mentally ill or sick from chemicals – WHO CARES?! Certainly not you or those workers you are bringing in!
Not everyone is an A+ scholars who can get tons of free scholarships. Many have the potential but have not had the lives that offered an environment to fully develop
Not everyone can afford to do internships during the summer – because of wealthy families to pay for their education
The Americans have paid taxes all of their lives in the USA and MUST OBEY if drafted! Society owes them a chance to fully develop into adults that can reach their potential.
AMERICA MUST invest in helping everyone get a good education
Also, many adults are living paycheck to paycheck and would LOVE to enhance their tech education to become more marketable – they can not afford to do this and they do NOT work at companies that reimburse tuition of pay for tuition
America MUST invest in helping the current workforce reach their potential
Companies can still outsource if there is a dire need to get more tech savvy people.
But obviously you nor any of you elitist snobby tech friends can come out of your self absorb shell enough to care about those who are here and want to reach their potential
You are being selfish and short sighted and cold
If many of these ambitious youths and adults could afford to enhance their education, you would NOT have a need to import others here who dont give a shit about America or anyone living here.
The same young adults you don’t care about – HAVE to fight for your freedom if called – or land in prison.
Will any of your genius techies volunteer to do so?
You got some nerve putting this question to the candidates. Did you also show as much concern about the struggling underprivileged dying to reach their potential
We are in a bind because of this, as we wish to move our CTO from NC (has LB1 there ) to our offices in Philly. Will take over a yr to get his status changed. Huge bummer he cant join us there!
Actually the applications were closed after two days in 2007, and it went to a lottery after three times as many applications as available slots were received. I know – I was one of the people losing the lottery.
In the end I’m quite happy it didn’t go through, since my wife is now in a very well paid job here in the UK, and I’m in a great place too, whereas if we’d ended up moving to the US she’d have had a hard time getting a work permit, and anyway wouldn’t have been able to easily get jobs even if she got a work permit (she did law – converting and passing the bar in CA with a UK law degree but without years of practice is no quick simple matter)
After having seen the difference in ease of hiring good people in the valley compared to UK (not because they’re not there, but because the competition for the great people is so much fiercer in Silicon Valley), the valley appeals even less to me now.
America is built on slavery and cheap labour. immigrants work cheap- mexicans ( lawn care), indians( IT ) etc- that is why america needs them.
immigration laws are built on slavery.PAST- white slave owners (sponsors)used blacks to capture other blacks and owned them . .PRESENT – IT companies ( sponsors ) own h1b visa holders.Like blacks won their freedom after hundreds of years – h1b visa holders get their freedom after they get their green card.- what happened to those days in 1970’s when foriegn doctors were let into this country with a green card without a sponsor.
I guess Thomas L Friedman would be a happy man now given that all he forecasted seems to be taking shape. Anything good and of value can only be halted temporarily but cannot be stopped altogether. Sooner or later it had to happen and it’s happening now…
Anita CM
(http://www.vantrix.net)
@very nice and interesting comment -but American kids are too busy smoking pot , partying and chasing girls and it is not really “cool” to be nerdy in high school . how many black and brown youths want to mathematicians , scientists rather than being a rapper , football player or a basketball player – you would find this answer if you know what a ” ghetto” is
@6 most of the black and brown youths choose a lifestyle when they are young -it is a cultural shock for some of these to graduate from high schools and engineering schools -( it is easy to be creative , smoke and sing a song ) and how come sports and music are dominated by blacks
.how many black people work at google ?? may be google should start hiring black people so that they do not end up on front lines and make them work on the next generation search engine .I bet white people would prefer to see them on TV rather than in school or behind a computer
there are more lucrative opportunities outside of the US why would anyone with significant talent want to come and be a slave for GOOG, or MS
Not only is this great news for the US and Silicon Valley, this has very positive impacts on the day-to-day lives of thousands of people who will now have new opportunities in the US. As a former H1B worker myself, I had to leave the US to start up NewsCred back in Switzerland. Of course, I would have loved to do it in Silicon Valley. One day I’ll be back hopefully!
@13 I’m not American and dont live in the US, but I can safely say that the country is still an amazing land of opportunity. its hard to replicate the entrepreneurial climate of Silicon Valley. That’s why people want to work there.
annyjoe- – you would not say that if you make $30 million of stock if you joined GOOG as an employee before they went IPO
@6 – “Many are joining the Military to get funds for college. In fact the Army and the Airforce are targeting cash strapped college age students via their advertising campaigns”
You’ve just answered yourself, it’s in the best interest of the government (as it is now), to give them a good reason to join the army.
And dude, in this country if you want to make it you just work hard at it. I’m one of those H1b skilled workers, I love this country, I do give a lot for what happens here. I came here 4 years ago, literally with $2000 and a lousy programmer job where I was paid under the table, worked for 6 months hardly getting paid until I got my h1b. Then I started switching jobs, to the point that I now quit my job and have 2 startups (starting a 3rd), live on one of the most expensive cities in the country, and started bringing my family.
I know of people who have been here all their lives and have wasted all the opportunities. I also know american people who have never gone to school and make 250k as coders, they have an immense drive for success, they teach themselves and have a passion for excellence, no need to even go to school, just work hard and surround yourself with good people, this is indeed the land of opportunity.
If it happened to me, having real narrow chances of finding companies that would sponsor my visa, why can’t it happen to people that are born here, speak the language, and can work without any constraints for any company?
Because they’re lazy, dumb and spoiled. Because they’ve never really known what’s to live on an economy where you really have to work hard to get anything.
If there’s something this country needs at the moment is innovation and smart people coming in, believe me, nobody is going to be stealing jobs, there’s way too much demand, at least on the technology industry.
I’m finding out that reality now that I’ve become an employer, it’s very very hard to find people that are good and responsible.
As it happens I was on a job site the other day. I looked around and it was 70% filipino and 25% Vietnamese and 5% other… That means 95% of the job is manned by foreigners. What did we get for that unable to follow directions and lack of craftsmanship for their duties. Love the reply YES when they dont have a clue what was just described. While I was having to train a degreed engineer that must know more than me since he is the best and the brightest from the Philippines on how to make a fucking RJ45 connector for a T1 interface. IT IS ON THE INTERNET, but yet he was best of the best and took the place of qualified American nationals… FUCK H1Bs we don’t owe any country anything, NOTHING!!! God damned T-Mobile is a sell out!!! I have been to 19 countries and I am telling you THEY LACK A COMMON SENSE AND UNDERSTANDING THAT WE AMERICANS HAVE!!! I have seen it too many times.
Oh and I smoke POT everyday since I was 14 (40ish now) Love Heavy Metal, I am non-degreed, a veteran. I work as a Wireless Telecom Engineer…
Also, Did everyone forget about Texas Instruments? People act like Silicone Valley was the only place inventions were made…
@Not a bug-
Bravo! I knew several of your type of hard working H1b’s. Great people with a drive for success.
@Goodguy-
Enough of the race baiting. Its cultural, not color related. If it was as simple as just hiring people of color, it would have been done by every corporation in America but it’s not that easy. Sorry.
I’m a student here in America. I’m not lazy, dumb or spoiled, rather I have just had the bad luck to not make it to an A-class university. I have experience coding in languages from Python to C# to Haskell, yet I have not found a job. I’m graduating in a month and I’ve been rejected by the likes of MS, Google, Adobe, etc. So, I find it immense BS that these companies can pull in talent from other countries, while ignoring people like myself, in America, who are eager to work hard and learn.
Oh, and @goodguy, love the racism!
check this link- blackplanet with 20 million profiles get bought by radio one for 38 million dollars.
http://hiphopmu...illion-dollars/
Bebo gets bought by aol for 850 million dollars( most of the poplulation not even american).
In early 2008 Bebo had over 34 million registered users and 7 billion monthly page views.- techcrunch
http://www.crun...om/company/bebo
explains what??? may be jaime can explain- money does control lot of stuff in a capitalist society and money and race are —-
you guess- and
I am originally from former Soviet Union, and I hold a Ph.D. in Psychometrics (advanced statistical methods in psychology, and measurement of latent traits). There is less than a dozen schools in the US that offer degrees in this field, with only 20-40 people graduating every year. Psychometricians are in high demand, most of them going to work in such areas as educational testing or applied psychology. I qualify for H1B visa in the “advanced degree” category” (candidates with Master or Ph.D. degrees), with annual quota of 20,000. This year, for the first time and for some unknown reasons, number of applications in this category far exceeded the quota (32,000 vs. 20,000 available), so they had to run a lottery. I did not make it. Some lawyers I know say that it has to do something with those shady Indian firms that submit visa applications in bulk to import cheap labor for IT industry. These people come here for a couple of years, with main purpose to earn some money. No attempt at assimilation or integration, no cultural/social contributions to American society whatsoever. Meanwhile, people like me, with advanced degrees in psychometrics, nuclear physics, and other fields are left behind, while 80% of H1 visas are allocated to IT workers from India. This is my 5th year in the US, I speak fluent English, pay taxes, volunteer, have insurance, blog, know American history and geography, follow American politics.. Yet I am the one who will be forced to go to Europe, Arab Emirates or Asia, and use the knowledge I received in the US to help those countries to compete with your country.
The system is competely f&cked up, and needs to be changed. I do not suggest increasing the quotas – simply changing the rules of selection could improve the situation. I think in making decisions, country of origin and area of specialization should be taken in consideration, instead of dumping all applicants in one pool and picking winners at random.
I find it interesting when I see US programmers who complain about H1B programmers. I guess I thought the US was a free market and that the best should succeed? Further it seems well clear to me that I’d rather have people immigrate to the US and work here than come here goto school and then go home and compete against us.
mike moritz ( sequioa cap) – sergey brin , paypal founder levchin, oracle’s larry ellison ,mark zukerberg all have something in common in silicon valley and they love asians and know how to use them and put them in top positions .(plus these people are highly qualified).let these people go to ford motor company with the same credentials – they may end up as contract workers for their entire life time- you do not see any asian or indian- but you do see african american (3 out of top 10 ) in management.
move over to media
steven spielberg , micheal eisner , summer redstone , etc do have something in common and they put blacks on TV , in films because white people love to see them .
jaime if you are an experienced and good programmer, you should not have a big problem switching over to _accepted_ languages which are in need.
You can make a mark in the scene by engaging in activities online which are in that area. Not to work for free but to work and make yourself known. If you only have applied at big companies like you described, you will need to face the fact that you do compete with many others and they can choose in what fits best.
But programmers, especially on hot languages are in high demand still. So if you are able to program (not just code) and beyond, as make yourself available by positioning yourself, I see no reason for you to not get a job.
As for the visas:
I agree that a country should start working with their own work force but then again silicon valley is not lollipop island. there is a whole lot of very smart people there and companies also like microsoft need more than just the avarage student.
To believe that it will stop companies with foreign work force is nonsense – they will just do what Microsoft has done to a more or less degree and work around the system of biz visiting visas if necessary.
I believe that US companies should pay higher prices for IT workers. No more H1-Bs. IT can be difficult work. For example, I pay my lawyer $250/hr to do simple tasks. Why can’t difficult IT jobs also pay similar wages. Higher wages will incentivize “retired” workers to come back into the profession and to fill our schools again. Also, if companies cannot afford those wages, their business models are probably poor to begin with.
@LM – I thought most russians come here as mail order brides and marry navy soliders to stay in the country – i must be a dumb stupid and spoiled american -:)
@nicole simon .
completely agree
i have heard that companies now use L1 OR B1 VISA and rotate them – these are completely exempt from visa regulations – no cap at all.
outsourcing has triggered globilzation and people need to adapt.
@LM -
I donot know if you are a male or female you can try contacting some navy soliders – if you are a female – but if you are a male – unfortunately american women prefer black men over russian men
@goodguy
No, I do not think that Americans are dumb stupid or lazy. That’s why I came here, fully embraced American culture, and would love to stay here not to make a quick buck but to become a fully integrated member of your society. I guess I am not your average Russian
but then again, i know Americans who think that “Mona Lisa” was painted by Monet, consider drinking wine to be “gay”, and believe that Muslims use their right hand instead of toilet paper so they refuse to shake their hands…
The only reason the yearly cap gets exhausted so quickly is abuse by international body shops.
If the H-1B program had been used as intended by the framers, not a single American worker would have been displaced. Instead, hundreds of thousands, maybe a million or more (no one is keeping accurate records) American workers have been given pink slips and H-1Bs were brought in to replace them.
Often, the replacement workers were younger, were paid less, had unverifiable degrees and credentials, and/or were less skilled and experienced than the American workers they replaced. Not always, but a lot of the time. Wipro, for one, has admitted that it uses H-1Bs as part of an outsourcing process. This is a gross misuse of the program. Wipro has admitted that it uses the cost advantage of lower H-1B salaries as a competitive advantage in winning work away from Americans. Another gross misuse of the H-1B!
Foreign workers have also misused the H-1B by treating it as an immigration visa which it is not. It does not bar the intent to immigrate (as the student visa does) but it also does not specifically provide for immigration. It is a temporary work visa. An alarming coalition, one might even say conspiracy, has grown between foreign bodyshops and foreign workers. The workers overlook abuse in return for a chance to earn a nest egg and/or immigrate here.
The ONLY proper use of the H-1B visa is to temporarily fill spot labor/skills shortages until an American can be developed or found for the job. It is wildly abusive to use this visa to replace American workers, to undercut American salaries or workplace rights, or to facilitate immigration. If the H-1B program was being rightfully used, it is hard to imagine why we would need a yearly cap of more than a few thousand, at most.
Don’t look now, but foreign graduates are SUPPOSED to return to their native countries and build up their own nations. It’s a condition of the student visa.
@Bart
You are talking about J-1 visas, when foreign students from developing countries are receiving scholarships and other financial support in order to obtain degree in the US. Upon graduation, they MUST return to their home countries, and I believe this is right. But most of F-1 visa students who come here, come here at their own expense – that is the reason why US universities are so interested in international students, because we pay for our tuition and living expenses. Some of us do receive scholarships, some work as graduate or research assistants, but majority of international students rograms PAY for their education from their own pocket or other non-US sources, bringing billions of dollars to US economy.
I am fully-aware of the economics, but I can’t help thinking that we need to focus more on encouraging the use of our own workforce. It’s a shame that patriotism can’t figure into these decisions. Yes, we have a long history of exploiting foreign workers for low wages, but whenever we look at our history, we regret it.
Why not simply let highly educated people immigrate to this country? Why do we need to create a tier of second class workers who are highly educated, but do not have the same freedom of movement within their industry?
It seems to me like the only reason to create H1B visas is to drive down tech worker salaries. When we start having H1B visas for tech startup CEOs and not for their employees, I’ll start supporting it.
@bart
that is the whole reason they need to get rid of the ” slave owners” and let the government regulate who can come in without these body shops –
first preference to people who go to school and
@LM – we do not want foreigners to assimilate – you are not american- you will not have the mind set – americans do not believe in a communist society – you will never understand what football is , what an american apple pie and most americans do not do the things that you do ( pay taxes blah, blah etc) except speak english -since russian economy is booming (like india) you can go back as lot of indians are leaving US to go back to their country as they do not want to assimilate/ integrate.
We need to scrap all the guestworker visa programs until all Americans are back to work, and not just underemployed either. Haven’t the visa hopefuls noticed that America has entered a recession and the mass layoffs of Americans have already begun?
bart
@ unfortunately lot of celebrities , models , auto executives (carlos ghosn)
(http://en.wikip...ki/Carlos_Ghosn) toyota that we need work on visa and we need them because we cannot make good cars .I do not want to go home and switch my TV off
Don’t look now, but Hondas and Toyotas are made in America by American workers. Check their websites, they have plants here and have for years.
The aggregate NCES education and BLS employment figures do not support a shortage in skilled personnel. Prior to 2000, American degree production for citizens/permanent residents and employment growth for college grads were relative.
The delta between college degrees and American colleges degreed employment was a shortfall 2,061,405 jobs in 2006. Meanwhile, 1,558,272 initial and continuing employment approval were granted to H-1B non-immigrants 2000-2005.
The BLS Unemployment level of College Graduates went from a low of 559,000 in 2001, to an all time high of 1,221,000 in 2004.
The total of temporay resident postgraduates from American colleges in 2005, was 90,944 — well under the 120,120 visa EB green card program.
The H-1B visa should be renamed to the H-1BondedServitude visa.
http://immigrat...degrees-vs.html
@bart
true agree-but forget silicon valley and look at detroit job market and housing market -layoffs and buyouts -the big 3 has lost major market share and that did not see the japanese hiring these people and relocating them
check these articles
indian call center lands in ohio
http://money.cn...41303/index.htm
indian software firm to outsource to us
http://www.npr....toryId=14204620
As offshoring evolves, Indian firms even hire Americans
http://www.usne...3offshoring.htm
if japanese and indian hired enough americans we would not see
this recession coming and one more thing chrysler was recently bought by feinberg controlled cerebus who has something in common with mike moritz, mark zukerberg and summer redstone
why is not micheal arrington covering any isreali startups anymore??
There is no point in increasing the H1-B cap if you don’t fix other part of the problem the caps on Permanent Residency aka Green cards. You are just moving the problem further down the road when the people with H1-Bs have to go back to their own country with the years of experience in the US to work for companies in other countries competing with the American companies.
Personally I’d like to see H1B’s gone forever. I’ve seen and felt the abuse of visas. It’s time for american companies to invest in american workers.
I totally agree with LH!! When will the Americans wake up and start taking care of US citizens. If we keep this up America will no longer be a super power. Will other countries offer the same type of programs?
While I’m not against foreign workers entering the US – I do feel the sentiments voiced by the great majority of comments on this post points to one glaring issue – the American worker and in this case the American Engineer is now forced to compete in a global marketplace.
Industry watchers have been saying this for the past 20 years and it has truly come to fruition. After working in Silicon Valley on and off for 20 years – I was amazed at how the demographics of this region has completely flipped over the past 15 years.
It’s utterly amazing – the impact of the Indian Engineer has completely changed the make-up and the dynamics of Silicon Valley. It’s too early to say if it’s for the better or worse. But it is fairly obvious that the impact of this global playing field has forever changed how the valley works.
For example – 20 years ago (1988) the average software engineer with a BSCS Degree and 5-7 years experience could easily make around $80K per year. How do I know, because I was one of them! Guess what the average salary of that same engineer (5-7 years experience, BS/MS Degree) is today? It’s still $80K per year!!!
20 years ago we were told that there would be a staffing shortage of in the technical fields (scientific, medical, business, etc.) and that shortage would last the next 40 years. Fastforward 20 years later – the jobs are still there but the demand AND the salary for the American Engineer is stagnant or even waned.
Why? Because we Americans failed to understand the impact of the global marketplace. As a CEO, why would I pay an American Engineer $100-$110K per year when I can get a comparative foreign talent for $65K-$80K??
The impact all of this has had on the valley is to force many young and college age engineers into entrepreneurial pursuits – it simply does not pay to work 60-70 hours per week for some company that when the first sign of trouble hits are willing to move development, QA, Support and Sustaining Engineering jobs over the pond!
It’s quite ironic that as an engineer I was and still am directly impacted by the industry’s transition to cheap technical labor. Now as an entrepreneur I have lots of coding and graphic design projects I outsource – on average I award 1 in 5 jobs to American developers — why? Because they simply cost more than foreign developers and graphic artists. Sure there are language and time zone barriers – but I know that I can get a comparable work product for about 30%-60% of the cost of an American developer.
It’s sad – but it’s reality. So the issue here isn’t really H1B visas… it’s figuring out how the American Engineer will ultimately compete and survive in a global marketplace.
Either give indians visa to work here in the US and pay them here
or
let the whole IT outsource to india or china with much much lower rates….
you choose…
cant ppl learn from the Car industry… its already gone to china….
what else they wanna outsource the whole busines sector? banking industry?…
the fact is Businesses will always look to cut down cost… and american worker is twice expensive!
Leave Silicon Valley alone! Leave Silicon Valley alone. Right now!!
On a serious note, Indian workers are living 10-to-an-apartment for the first two years they’re here because they don’t get paid anything. Minimal, illegal rates. No OT. Their recruiting firms are criminals – surprise. To fix that problem, make transferring H1-B cake. Right now H1-Bs are captive, so IT firms can run roughshod over them. It’s a brutal regime. Big companies love it b/c they get great talent for 50% cheaper. M.A. and politicians will talk about ‘competitiveness’, but they’re just trying to keep thing tilted in favor of business over labor. This is America – there will always be plenty of unemployed people. It’s the only way to hold down wages.
Other than that, I say tear down all borders, everywhere. Down with the nation-state and artificial lines painted on a map. Better to have the masses decide where we want to live, rather than it be directed from on high by our betters – multinational corporations.
Hey Bart. Have proof to back up your claims?
I’ve worked on an H-1B at several major high tech companies now, and I certainly haven’t been paid any less than the average worker, nor have my H-1B colleagues.
The idea that one could get in with an unverifiable degree also seems like a weak claim – have you ever applied for a visa? Those buggers are strict and thorough!
It’s very easy to scapegoat the immigrants and visa programs instead of looking in the mirror when you can’t get the high tech job you want.
Are there examples of companies that abuse the H-1B? Maybe. Is it a widespread problem or otherwise somehow the norm? Not from my vantage point. I’d love to see data otherwise instead of friend-of-a-friend anecdotes.
@weaver: Having a random arts degree from a random US college does not mean that you’re a suitable employee for a high tech company. These companies have very high hiring standards. They’re not taking low-quality employees from outside the country either.
Take any economics course – having an influx of highly skilled workers into your country is a boon for any economy. Bart, your proposed changes would harm the US.
Agreed with everyone who talked about fixing the Green Card program too.
@Peter – H-1Bs are easy to transfer from one employer to another.
As a recruiter in the tech industries, this is long over do. We are starved for talent and god knows US schools won’t be turning them out anytime soon
This ain’t the 90’s anymore, I pay an H1 the same money I pay a US worker
Silicon Valley is hardly in a growth mode. Young Americans are rightly choosing to avoid IT careers because of the extremely grim job prospects. If you go to h1bfacts dot com then you can start seeing how the “best and the brightest” actually get PAID. Congresswomen Gifford sends a bill to increase the H1B cap to 115,000 but ignores the fact that H1Bs being Sonora school district science teachers get paid $27,500 a year. Take a look at what University of Arizona (being in her district) get PAID. If a true shortage existed then wages would go UP encouraging young Americans to study science and engineering. You see a job on Craigslist in Denver, CO requiring a 4 year college degree for $24K a year.
Another failed argument is “If we don’t give high tech companies more H1Bs then they go overseas” ignores the FACT that is EXACTLY what happened in 2000 and 2001. The high tech companies got an H1B visa increase and then they used those H1Bs as INSOURCING visas.
INSOURCING is defined as the TEMPORARY importation of H1Bs working with Americans to export their jobs. Concord, CA BofA employees in 2002 as a condition of their severance had to work with Indian H1Bs to train them so the jobs could be exported.
@Nicole Simon
The languages I mentioned were just examples; I’m not trying to post my resume here. I don’t know what your definition of “_accepted_ languages” is (maybe Java), but the point is that I have experience in different programming paradigms, so that knowledge is easily transferred to learning new languages. Logically, one would think companies to prefer programmers that are willing to look beyond Java.
To Brian: yes, the government archives the truth about what H-1Bs are being offered in the DOL LCA database. A few of you are paid very well. Many are not. As for not having the high tech job I want, I happen to be an IT hiring manager, so I know how silly it is to claim a talent shortage in America first hand. What is harming the country is flooding the labor market and devaluing what once were decently paid professions.