Blog H1-B visa ripe with fraud…no suprises there
If you have followed my blog, you know that I am in favor of H1-B visas (my previous post on the topic is here). For those who are unfamiliar, they are visas provided by the US government to allow skilled workers to work in the US for between three and six years (learn more about H1-B’s here). Today Business Week is reporting on a report from the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) saying that 13% of all H1-B applications are fraudulent and another 7% have “technical violations”. This “news” should come as a surprise to no one.
Why should this not be a surprise? When you have software engineers that make an average of $700 a month in their home country, compared to an average of $5,000 in the US, basic math tells you that you can pay the guy from overseas double, let him take twice as long and still come out ahead by a large margin. Tie hands of regulators to investigate abuses and you have a system that is begging to be abused.
Now the H1-B program has rules to protect both US workers and recipients of H1-B’s. According to the law companies are required to pay the “prevailing wage” for the worker. However, the U.S. General Accounting Office has pointed out that the enforcement of these rules is difficult at best (see the report from the US GAO here). In the report, it points out that the Department of Labor (DOL) has only limited abilities to investigate abuses in the H1-B visa program. For example, the DOL can only question certain documentation for only for “completeness and obvious inaccuracies” and is unable to question anything else, regardless what it is. However, when a claim is made that starts an investigation, the likelihood of a violation being found is astronomically high (ranging from 75% to 92%).
The above is just one example of how the system is set up to fail. Fortunately, action is on it’s slow way through Congress. There is currently a bill sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin [D, IL], Sen. Charles Grassley [R, IA] and Sen. Bernard Sanders [I, VT] in the Senate that is attempting to close the loopholes discussed above (see the full text of the bill here). This bill allows for the DOL to initiate investigations into H1-B issues as well as increases penalties for violations under the law. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be high on anyone’s priority list given the election year.
I am a supporter of H1-B visas because they help fill an important talent void in the US. However, without loopholes being filled and the ability to enforce the law given the the appropriate parties, the system that was meant to keep the US competitive in the global economy and a leader in innovation will only serve as a program for companies to get cheap labor.
What are your thoughts on H1-B’s? Do you have an H1-B? Share your thoughts or experiences with H1-B’s in the comments.
RE: “…basic math tells you that you can pay the guy from overseas double, let him take twice as long and still come out ahead by a large margin.”
Assuming that your project has no impending events which will affect it’s profitability (such as a competitor on the cusp of a release), and you have found an overseas shop that is so morally fit that they will not take your idea and undercut it in the market with their “own version”, and that you will get the same quality despite a lack of day to day oversight, a language barrier and/or a culture barrier.
Just suggesting there’s greater depth to this equation.
Having worked with and managed H1B’s, here are my 2 cents…
a) H1B’s are just like other (American) IT workers. Some are good, some are bad, most are average.
b) H1B’s do make at least 10% less then their American counterparts, at least for the first 4-5 years of their professional lives in America. Their salaries do rise after they get their green cards.
c) H1B’s do generally work 10-15 hours more (on a average) per week. I guess they think they have make a good impression and have this mentality of putting work over personal life.
d) They are cheaper to insure since most of them are single for the first 4-5 years of their professional lives in America. And, you don’t have to promote them cuz a promotion sometimes may invalidate their labor certification :
e) They are less demanding. For e.g. (1) they’d make do with maybe a older computer with less ram and a smaller screen monitor than say their American counterpart. (2) Or say if they’re in consulting they’d probably won’t complain about being booked to stay in a crappy hotel. They complain less if they have to work extra, say late nights and/or on weekends.
f) Many of them do lack good communication skills but their “can do” attitude and the fact that they are (generally) not in managerial and/or customer facing positions, makes up for this deficiency.
So overall this is a win-win for the H1B employee and the company. The H1B gets a decent job with better future prospects and the Company gets to save the almighty ddllar.
Yes, the average american IT worker might feel the impact of this cuz the H1B’s probably do bring the overall wages down a bit. But then how many of our kids are going to college to be software engineers? And how many of our lads are in computer Sc. based graduate programs?
>>>> I am a supporter of H1-B visas because they help fill an important talent void in the US.
What nonsense! Everyone talks of the thousands of resumes they look through to find a qualified developer. Is the problem that we are so full of our selves, we think we’re in the top 0.01 percentile?
If you can’t find a developer in a thousand resumes, it’s because you assume 1000 people are stupid, and that makes you stupid.
Almost all thinks tech, all software gains, everything we do, everything we use came from the U.S. But suddenly we’re all too stupid to fill the void.
Give me a break!
Almost all thinks tech
should be:
Almost all things tech,
They are a captive audience, literally! The company they work for sponsors their visa, so they have no choice but to be happy and accept what ever is thrown at them. That’s why companies love them.
I would tend to agree with Ted G. Sadly I watched numerous Indian developers walk around sort of scared to stand up for themselves but so thrilled just to be in the USA.
Sorry for being that guy but I think the word you were looking for was rife. Ripe makes no sense in this context.
>>> Sorry for being that guy but I think the word you were looking for was rife. Ripe makes no sense in this context.
Ha Ha….agreed. Maybe he’s on H1 too.
:)