Immigration Law Articles and News
 

H1B Workers: America’s friends or foes (June 2006)

As regular readers of our articles would know, the H1B visa cap for Fiscal Year 2007 was reached on May 26, 2006, less than 60 days after the beginning of the application period.  This is a record time in the history of the H1B program.   The logical question to ask would be:  do we need more visa numbers for H1B workers?  Like many other issues of U.S. immigration, the H1B workers are also the subject of controversy.

The H1B visa program is a non-immigrant visa category for individuals to work in the U.S. for a temporary period of time, usually 3 to 6 years, to fill the openings of certain “specialty occupation.”  What is a specialty occupation?  Generally speaking, it is a professional job requiring a bachelor’s degree.  Examples of H1B occupation include engineers, accountants, computer software programs, etc.   The program was instituted mostly to accommodate the employment needs of the hi-tech industry during the dot.com era.   The U.S. historically has been unable to train enough engineers and computer scientists to meet its demands for its hi-tech industry. 

The H1B visa program has undergone many changes with its quota expanded temporarily from 1999 to 2003 for several years.   However, since 2004, the quota has been set back to the original quota of 65,000 from 1992.   The result: the visas are used up in record times.   Congress is debating several proposals relating to the H1B program.  One proposal is to increase the quota permanently to 115,000;  others proposes that the quota should be dynamically increased every year to reflect the current needs;  yet, some others advocate a shorter and faster process for foreign professionals to obtain permanent residency. 

As usual, these proposals are countered by arguments for the H1B opponents.  They believe the H1B workers have taken away jobs in the IT and other industry from the U.S. citizens, increasing unemployment, and adversely affecting the working conditions of the U.S. workers.  These arguments are weak in light of the current 3% unemployment rate of the U.S. tech. unemployment.  Furthermore, it is clear that most of these H1B workers are equipped with the updated skills and expertise that are needed by the U.S. companies.  Many of them were trained locally in the U.S. university campuses, and their salaries are mandated by the Department of Labor to be comparable to the U.S. workers’. 

Another danger of insufficient H1B workers is that the U.S. companies would have no choice but send jobs to offshore sites.  Or, these foreign workers would just simply seek jobs in other countries.  Losing these workers to other countries hurts the U.S. in two ways.  One is the immediate loss of jobs in the U.S.  More importantly, these highly-educated professionals will also bring their innovation with them to other countries.  The U.S. has already lost its manufacturing jobs to other countries.   All we have is our innovative spirits, as reflected in our technologies, advance in health care and patented drugs, and business ideas.  Innovation is something that we cannot afford to lose now.  In this respect, the H1B workers are definitely our friends. 

Note:  All discussions posted on this website are meant to be general information only and do not constitute legal advice.  Immigration laws and regulations change on a daily basis.  Any and all information posted on this website could become outdated soon after publication.  Please also see our DISCLAIMERS.

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