US' stricter H-1B plan may hit Indian outsourcing firms

Source: Economic Times India

28 Jan 2009, 0006 hrs IST, Pankaj Mishra, ET Bureau

BANGALORE: Two US senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley plan to reintroduce a stricter H-1B visa reform legislation this year, making it mandatory for outsourcing companies such as TCS, Wipro and Infosys to hire local American workers before seeking any H-1B visas for their Indian employees.

The move, if implemented, would drastically increase costs and make it difficult for the Indian IT companies to send employees onsite at a time of wrenching economic slowdown. The bill will also ask these companies to pay the prevailing wages to H-1B workers, making offshore outsourcing more attractive, and onshore resources costlier by 20-30%.

"The Durbin-Grassley bill would require all employers seeking to hire an H-1B visa holder to pledge that they have made a good-faith effort to hire American workers first and that the H-1B visa holder will not displace an American worker," senator Grassley's office said in a statement.

Companies such as Wipro, which serves US customers including Citi and GE by sending H-1B visa holders to the country, say such regulations will be unfortunate, if introduced.

"If a restriction of this kind is introduced, the playing field will get unevenly poised," said Pratik Kumar, Wipro's HR executive vice-president. Wipro had sent about 3,000 people on H-1B visas in the past two years.

Granted by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, around 65,000 H-1B visas were issued to immigrants from companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, TCS, Infosys and Wipro last year. Each H-1B visa costs around $6,000.



Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Visa_Power/US_stricter_H-1B_plan_may_hit_Indian_outsourcing_firms/articleshow/4039034.cms

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Good for Senators Grassley and Durbin! :applause:

Is the context to that phrase similar to that of a threat?

Right now, the playing field IS unlevel. Which is why the H1B program continues to be misused and abused and more, qualified, Americans lose jobs and opportunities.

Banks like Wachovia (now part of Wells Fargo) were working to shift
operation center processing jobs to India.

Some jobs already there, the goal was to send 80% of them to an India
call center.

Both Durbin and Grassley on our side! Glad to hear it. :woohoo:

A big K&R

:kick:

h

H-1B amd L1 visa programs should be terminated immediately.

;)

:)

corporations that keeps laying off local workers and hiring foreigners that aren't even trained to do the jobs, to come and take them over.

However, people are going to have to accept lower salaries than they once did, and they probably will.

It's "hard times" ahead.

Until they have hired back as many employees from the resident population as they originally laid off.

This fucking "outsourcing"/cheap labor mentality is killing this country.

you mean.....they were LYING to us?

noooooooooooooooo!

many are unemployed. Common sense is coming back into fashion.

Even outdated unemployment statistics from January 19, 2009

MICHIGAN 9.6
RHODE ISLAND 9.3
CALIFORNIA 8.4
SOUTH CAROLINA 8.4
OREGON 8.1
DC 8
NEVADA 8

continue to grow, indicative of an excess of talent without employment in domestic US.

With the economic slump in place, outsourcing will continue to grow but will experience some changes on the horizon, primarily a progressively fiercer market where outsourcing firms will be forced to slash charges to US companies in order to beat the competetion.

To the unemployed and disenfranchised in America this means that rather than attempting to benefit from your talents, US organizations will more likely attempt to outsource the work you could offer because it is cheaper and easier and is going to get even more lucrative.

I wish common sense were making its way back into the American corporate mindset but you assumption might possibly be naive. It is possible your assumption on common sense is that this concept will also works its way to the executives.

Let's review this process shall we?

Citicorp, lays off 75,000 people, takes a $35 billion tax payer funded bailout package and buys a $50 million executive jet with the money.

Bank of America receives a $25 billion bailout package and then turns on a bill that facilitates the formation of employee unions

Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits in the calendar year 2007

The list goes on....

Does this look like people who give a rat's ass about a lowly serf working their butt off in cubeland, struggling to keep their family afloat?

From the greedy corporation perspective, why invest money, time and resources into hiring local talent that we will have to provide benefits for, an office or cube, higher wages and possibly even employment rights when we can pick up an outsourcing firm that will do the entire project for 1/10 of the price, without benefits or office space?

and instead assume that they are telling the truth when they "pledge" that they tried to hire local?

Baby steps are still steps, I suppose.

IT'ers know that. :mad:

Or "The Senator From Bangalore" or something like that?

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

He's also been going after the FDA.

... I find myself agreeing with him about 70% of the time. There are a FEW conservatives worthy of respect, he's one IMHO.

That said, the whole foreign worker in high tech because there aren't enough American skilled workers is 100% bullshit and the entire H1-B program should be scrapped, AMERICA CANNOT AFFORD TO SUPPORT FOREIGN WORKERS.

that they have made a good-faith effort to hire American workers first..."

"Pledge"? Why does this appear to me as a giant loophole big enough to drive a truck through? :shrug:

I would hope there would be alot of oversight and required studies included and not just take their word ("pledge") for it, otherwise I don't see how this would reduce offshoring (and onshoring H-1Bs would only be reduced due to the higher cost).

But agree with others regarding those baby steps.

I was an early believer in him, but many I knew had reasonably based skepticism

but Grassley's thrown too many bricks at H-1b to be a fake

just google H-1b Grassley

he just tells the truth too often

Just end the program.

I've worked at companies that have put that "good faith" ad in the paper....get hundreds upon hundreds of resumes....throw them in the garbage....say they "tried" to hire an American and keep the H-1B.

Recent studies by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and IEEE demonstrate that the current H-1b program does not protect U.S. workers. “It is legal to sponsor H-1b workers even when qualified U.S. workers are available,” according to Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/14852

it is only in the PERM process of green card authorization that they have to place fake job ads, as these wonderful lawyers detail here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

:puke:

Pimping in front of Congress, as usual.....with no one to refute his claims.

no, he doesnt have a nazi armband

but he was the sole witness at a senate tech labor hearning 10 months ago, where that pic comes from

where he said he needs infinite h-1bs, 10 months before major layoffs

no, he doesnt have any of the historical trappings of fascism

but that's what it was, just the same

by refusing work visas to US nationals. That would neutralise the situation. Anyone got figures for numbers of US nationals working abroad ?

However, I do know that there has been an on-going problem with U.S. students trying to get visas to go to India for studies for some time now.

Less number of US students coming to India for studies

Chalsa (WB), Dec 18: Less number of American students were coming to India for studies because of the "inordinate delay" in getting Indian visas, US embassy public affairs minister counsellor Larry Schwartz claimed here today.

"For some reason or the other, may be bureaucratic process, American students are not getting Indian visas while Indian students are getting US visas and all help to study in America," Schwartz said, addressing a three-day conference for Fulbright scholars in South Asia. "This year 30 American students could not avail Indian visas as they were issued very late," he said.

Another reason for less students coming here was the "interference" by Indian authorities in the choice of subjects of US students, Schwartz said.

He said delays in issuing Indian visas was "unfortunate", especially when indo-us ties were getting stronger. The Fulbright, would shortly open a centre at R.E.C at Silchar in Assam soon to cover more areas in the north-eastern region to help more students get opportunities to study in America, he added.

http://www.zeenews.com/Nation/2006-12-18/342876news.html

I must ask....Why the "interference" from Indian authorities?

why large numbers of US students would want to take their degrees whatever in India. :shrug:

Does it cost less there ?

A lady that I used to work with was here on an H-1B visa. She couldn't get over how expensive U.S. colleges were. She said she got her degree (with books included) for no more than $200!

WTF are you talking about. Who wants to move to India to make $3/hr?

This is somewhat second hand info, so I am not entirely certain of its authenticity, but and Indian friend of mine once told me that India does limit the number of work visas given to US nationals. They use the same limit that we use for work visas given to Indian nationals. The only catch is that there are not enough US workers going to India to reach the limit.

Egypt. Been here 3.5 years. Also worked in Saudi Arabia for 2 years. I work for a large American aerospace company with hundreds of employees working in foreign countries.

It wouldn't be as simple as other countries refusing work visas. For one thing, the rules about that seem to be different in every country.

e.g., in Egypt I don't have a "work visa." Just an Egyptian Residency Visa, which must be renewed every year.

But Saudi Arabia did require all foreigners to get a national work visa called an igama. Our company's permanent employees had to turn in their US passports in exchange for the igama, and the passports were held in a safe at the company office.

We knew things were serious when the company handed back the passports...as they did when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. But I was working in Saudi Arabia on a Business Visa, which could only be renewed by the Saudi Embassy IN THE USA every 5 months. That meant I was guaranteed a trip out of Wahhabi Wonderland every few months, which made me very happy.

I also kept my US passport with me at all times. I never liked the idea of giving up my passport to anybody in a foreign country.

There are also many other issues preventing mass refusal of American workers. If the foreign nation has Stuff built by an American company, many times Americans are the only people who can keep it running.

That would certainly give the foreign country pause if, for example, an American company built and maintains their air-traffic control system.

Along with the foreign country, BTW, American companies overseas must follow the Byzantine and mind-numbing bureaucracy of the US State and Commerce departments, and umpteen other Federal contracting offices, each with their own library of rules.

One great example is that huge can of worms known as ITAR--International Traffic In Arms Regulation. That doesn't mean a company is selling AK-47s or bombs to a foreign country. Nowdays, this laptop I'm using right now can come under ITAR. And so can its hard disk, that printer sitting on my desk, etc. etc.

These jobs shouldn't have been outsourced in the first damn place!

Expatriate executives making way for local hires (India firing foreigners..hiring locals)

28 Jan 2009, 0503 hrs IST, Sanjeev Choudhary, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Expatriate executives, who were the flavour of the season when India was riding high on a 9%-plus growth rate, are now becoming first ones to get the pink slip as Indian industry, hit by the slowdown, starts looking within the country for inexpensive hires.

“Many of the expatriate executives, who have been asked to leave, are subject experts. Their value diminishes in a downturn as companies are no more expanding, and thus don’t need people to guide in a new venture,” says K Sudarshan, MD of executive search firm EMA Partners’ India unit.

Since October 2008, there has been a spate of replacements of expat executives with Indian professionals at the senior level.

Aviva Life Insurance appointed former Citibank executive TR Ramachandran to replace Bert Paterson as the CEO for its Indian operations. Insurance firm MetLife replaced its CFO Nick Paket with an Indian hire. And, according to executive search firms, two top expatriate executives of another insurance firm are slated to leave in March, to be replaced by Indians.

More:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Jobs/Expatriate_executives_making_way_for_local_hires/articleshow/4039529.cms

Courtesy of "blard_m"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x420609

But it's a start. Just forcing H1-B workers to be paid competitively will help.

I hope it continues for a very long, long time and in other areas with other international workers as well. This nation needs to put Americans back to work period, end of story. Companies and their management who hire outsiders instead of citizens should be put in prison for letting their greed bring us to our knees and the lost of the American dream built on hard work and respectability.

:kick: