BHARATIYA FIRMS SNAG MOST H1-B VISAS
and/or www.mantra.com/jai
By Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN
the times of india
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Washington - The periodic flap over the H1-B visas issue is
set to blow up again in an election season, after latest
figures show Indian companies accounted for nearly 80% of
the visa petitions approved in 2007 for the top ten
participants in the programme.
Infosys and Wipro top the list of visa beneficiaries in
2007, with 4,559 and 2,567 approved visa petitions,
respectively, according to data from the US Citizenship &
Immigration Services.
Overall, six of the top 10 visa recipients in 2007 are
based in India; two others among the top 10, Cognizant
Technology Solutions and UST Global, are headquartered in
the US but have most of their operations in India.
Microsoft and Intel, which also have significant India
operations, are the only two traditional US tech companies
among the top 10. Microsoft received 959 visa petition
approvals, while Intel got 369. The numbers have once again
stoked fears among protectionists in the US that Indian
companies are working the system to bring in guest workers
to displace Americans and eventually take away the jobs.
The H1-B programme was originally meant to help American
companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Intel attract
skilled hi-tech workers from abroad to meet domestic skills
shortage. But critics say what is happening now is that
Indian companies are sending their workers to US companies
and rotating them back home after a year or two, taking
both skills and jobs back with them.
The Indian industry counters that this is just the outcome
of globalization in a 24/7 flat world where distances are
shrinking and boundaries are being broken. If the US does
not allow skilled foreign workers into the country, then
American business will suffer and American jobs will
migrate abroad in any case because of local skills shortage
and cost factors.
The issue has been relatively below the radar in the
presidential elections in 2008 (compared to 2004), but
locked in a close race for the Democratic nomination, both
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have promised action to
prevent American jobs from going abroad. Obama, in
particular, has been talking about stopping tax breaks for
companies that ship jobs overseas. At the same time, he has
said globalization is inevitable and "we can't draw a moat
around us".
Hillary Clinton too has broadly struck the same notes,
promising to rid the tax code of loopholes and giveaways
that enable US companies to ship jobs abroad.
But hamstrung by shortage of skill sets in the US, where
fewer Americans are taking to math, science, and
engineering each year, feisty American companies are
pressing for an increase in H1-B quota from its current
65,000 annual cap to 115,000, failing which they are all
too willing to migrate jobs abroad with their Indian
partners. Microsoft's Bill Gates, who's been the industry
spokesman on the matter, is scheduled to testify before
Congress next week on how to keep America competitive.
His solution, professed several times on the Hill increase
H1-B and green card quotas, especially for those who have
been educated and trained in the United States. But Gates’
argument representing the industry viewpoint is lost on
law-makers with a narrower focus. Charles Grassley and
Richard Durbin, two Senators who have long been critics of
the H1-B programme, are said to be considering measures to
prevent foreign companies from manipulating the skilled
guest worker programme, including penalizing and banning
firms if they file multiple petitions for the same
individuals.
The US will begin accepting H-1B visas on April 1 for the
next fiscal year, which begins October 1. Last year, the US
received 123,480 visa petitions in two days, more than
double the 65,000 cap. Companies receiving visas were
randomly picked by USCIS via a computerized lottery.
More at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indian_firms_snag_most_H1-B_visas_/articleshow/2848574.cms
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
http://www.mantra.com/jai
http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
DISCLAIMER AND CONDITIONS
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.