Demand for H-1B visas increasing
Demand for H-1B visas increasing
Date: Saturday, December 12, 2009 1:47 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 2057 -- 12/12/2009 >>>>>
As many of you have been finding out lately, there aren t very many companies
that are hiring. The jobs just aren t there -- unless you are an foreigner who
wants to work here because for them it s almost a mini hiring boom.
An article in the India Post titled: "Sudden increase in demand for H1B visa"
is no joke
After months of lackluster response, US authorities have witnessed a
sudden increase in demand for H-1B work visa, which is popular among
Indian professionals, though the applications received so far are
still over 6,000 short of the Congress-mandated cap of 65,000.
Patrick Thibodeau of Computerworld wrote an article recently but I think there
is some wishful thinking in it: "H-1B demand spike may signal improving
outlook for skilled pros. Economic confidence may have spurred sudden demand
for visas, college grads." His source of optimism is rather dubious and self
promoting:
An improving economic outlook and confidence in hiring may be
driving this increase. The National Association of Colleges and
Employers (NACE), an organization whose members include large
companies of 7,000 employees or more that include tech firms,
said that in its member survey for November that 28% of
respondents planned to increase college hiring, compared with
17% in August.
"College hiring has started to look better, much better than it
did," said Ed Koc, who heads research at association.
The more likely scenario is that companies are hiring the H-1Bs that are
graduating from our schools while at the same time American grads are left in
the lurch. For older Americans it means that they are being totally cut out of
the high tech job market.
The immigration law firm Cohen&Grigsby recently sent out an email newsletter
that was more specific about the rush to secure H-1B visas. The problem as
they see it is that companies are hiring so many H-1Bs that the yearly cap of
85,000 is close to running out:
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) has announced
that, as of December 8, 2009, it had received 61,500 petitions to
satisfy the congressionally mandated general H-1B cap of 65,000
petitions for fiscal year 2010 (FY 2010). CIS has already
received all 20,000 of the "advanced degree" exemptions for FY
2010, which means that any H-1B petitions filed on behalf of an
alien with an advanced degree will now count toward the general
H-1B cap.
Remember Cohen&Grigsby? They were the law firm that was featured in the
infamous youtube video that the Programmer s Guild put online. That video clip
of a seminar on how not to hire Americans has over 360,000 hits. In Segment 5
of the complete video of the seminar called "Alternatives to the H-1B visas"
you can hear how to import workers even if there are not enough H-1B visas
left for all the employers that want cheap labor.
So, back to their email newsletter that has a clear message for employers who
want to hire foreign workers even if the number of H-1B visas runs out soon.
According to the email all employers have to do is to hire Cohen&Grigsby
because they know all the loopholes and tricks.
Please contact us [email] immediately if you have a case that may be
subject to the cap and/or if you wish to discuss any H-1B alternatives.
LINKS:
blog version:
http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2009/12/12/demand-for-h-1b-visas-increasing/
http://www.cohenlaw.com/
Cohen & Grigsby website
Cohen & Grigsby Bulletin, December 2009
no link available
http://www.vdare.com/rubenstein/091202_nd.htm
The Employment Case for an Immigration Moratorium
http://www.indiapost.com/us-news/6436-Sudden-increase-demand-for-H1B-visa-USCIS.html
IndiaPost - Voice of Indians Worldwide: Sudden increase in demand for H1B
visa: USCIS
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141648/H_1B_demand_spike_may_signal_improving_outlook_for_skilled_pros
H-1B demand spike may signal improving outlook for skilled pros
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
PERM Fake Job Ads defraud Americans to secure green cards fo by Programmer's
Guild
http://programmersguild.org/
PG website
http://lyrelyrepantzandfier.com/
Complete collection of Colen & Grigsby video seminar
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DECEMBER 9, 2009 BULLETIN TO ALL IMMIGRATION CLIENTS
REMINDER -- CIS Announces Updated H-1B Cap Count The U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services (CIS) has announced that, as of December 8, 2009, it had
received 61,500 petitions to satisfy the congressionally mandated general H-1B
cap of 65,000 petitions for fiscal year 2010 (FY 2010). CIS has already
received all 20,000 of the "advanced degree" exemptions for FY 2010, which
means that any H-1B petitions filed on behalf of an alien with an advanced
degree will now count toward the general H-1B cap. USCIS will continue to
accept both cap-subject petitions and advanced degree petitions until a
sufficient number of H-1B petitions has been received to reach the statutory
limits, taking into account the fact that some of these petitions may be
denied, revoked, or withdrawn. Most likely, CIS will accept only approximately
3,000 more petitions for FY 2010.
Please contact us immediately if you have a case that may be subject to the
cap and/or if you wish to discuss any H-1B alternatives.
We will, of course, continue to closely monitor this entire situation and
communicate any developments as they occur.
Please contact any member of the Cohen & Grigsby Immigration Department if you
have any questions regarding the above at 412.297.4900. To receive future
bulletins e-mail, please send an e-mail to info@cohenlaw.com.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.vdare.com/rubenstein/091202_nd.htm
December 02, 2009
National Data, By Edwin S. Rubenstein
The Employment Case for an Immigration Moratorium Too many people. Not enough
jobs. This, in a nutshell, is the dilemma facing the United States economy.
On Thursday Barack Obama convokes a Who s Who of business, labor, and academia
to brainstorm the problem at a "Jobs Summit".
So far policymakers have focused exclusively on the Not Enough Jobs part of
the problem -- with dismal results.
The $787 billion stimulus package passed in February was supposed to generate
3.5 million jobs within two years. Last month, the Obama Administration
released a report claiming that just 640,000 jobs were saved or created by the
program so far. But more than 7 million people have lost jobs since the start
of the recession in December 2007.
Although the President said that 90 percent of the new jobs created by the
stimulus program would be in the private sector, the data suggests that well
over half of the jobs claimed so far have been in the public sector.
They include 325,000 jobs in education, including teachers, administrators and
support staff, and 73,000 other jobs paid for with education grants, many of
them in public safety.
Even if accurate -- and many reports claim the Administration s job creation
tally is inflated -- this is a bad deal. In spending $787 billion for 640,000
jobs, the government has put taxpayers on the hook for $1.2 million per job.
If, by some miracle, the stated goal of 3.5 million jobs comes to pass, the
cost per job would be a still outrageous $225,000.
By comparison, the average full time civilian worker earned $44,101 in 2009.[
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey(PDF)]
Sure, the government can pump billions into infrastructure, but it doesn t
necessarily go beyond the wasteful, fraudulent, and abusive hands of
contractors and government officials.
And big chunks of any temporary tax cut will be saved by consumers.
Similarly, in the midst of the recession, large corporations are sitting on
record piles of cash while small companies -- the ones that traditionally
generate the lion s share of new jobs -- are shut out of the credit markets.
The obvious lesson: Washington is no better at providing jobs than it is at
providing health care, military equipment, or a border fence.
So what ideas will come out of Thursday s jobs summit? We expect the same old
Keynesian policies repackaged. Old moonshine in new bottles.
Conspicuously missing from summit deliberations: any discussion of the flip
side of the unemployment problem -- too many job seekers. Yet this clearly
offers the best hope of resolving the dilemma.
The brutal arithmetic runs like this: roughly 100,000 jobs per month must be
created just to accommodate the growth in the U.S. labor force.
Most people regard labor force growth as a "natural" phenomenon, the excess of
young entrants over older retirees, and therefore beyond the realm of public
policy.
But most people are wrong.
Once a year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases data on immigrant
employment trends. Its latest report, for calendar 2008, shows a significant
rise in immigrant jobless -- both in absolute numbers and as a share of the
total:
Unemployment by Nativity, 2007-08
2007
2008
Increase, 2007-08
% Increase, 2007-08
Unemployment (1,000s)
Total
7,078
8,924
1,846
26.1%
US born
6,051
7,521
1,470
24.3%
Foreign born
1,027
1,403
376
36.6%
Percent of total
14.5%
15.7%
Unemployment rate (%)
Total
4.6
5.8
1.2
26.1%
US born
4.7
5.8
1.1
23.4%
Foreign born
4.3
5.8
1.5
34.9%
SOURCE: BLS, unpublished tables.
There were 1.403 million unemployed immigrants in 2008 -- or about 16 percent
of all jobless in the U.S. More importantly, the number of foreign-born
jobless rose by 376,000 in 2008, accounting for 20% that year s unemployment
increase. These are primarily legal immigrants. The illegal alien workforce
shrank last year, presumably returning home when their U.S. jobs disappeared.
The implication is clear: had an immigration moratorium been in effect
approximately 376,000 fewer people would have been unemployed in 2008. That is
equal to more than half the jobs allegedly saved or created by the stimulus
package.
And gross legal immigration continued at near record levels. More than 1.1
million persons obtained permanent resident status, 60,1000 were admitted as
refugees, and a whopping 1.1 million "temporary" workers and their families
entered the country legally in 2008. The foreign-born labor force rose by
69,000 net in 2008, a sharp decline from the prior year s 840,000 increase,
probably due to illegals returning home. [2008 Yearbook of Immigration
Statistics]But this slowdown is obviously only a temporary phenomenon --
unless Congress enacts an immigration moratorium.
Today, with the unemployment rate nearly double what it was a year ago, a
moratorium could easily cut unemployment by as much as the stimulus.
Unlike the stimulus, moreover, a moratorium could actually reduce federal
spending by eliminating the cost of processing several million visa
applications and tracking visa holders. Talk about bang for the buck!
Historically, the federal government is much more effective at reducing the
number of job seekers than in creating jobs. Legal immigration averaged more
than 1 million per year the first decade of the 20th century and was still a
lofty 700,000 annually in the early 1920s. The immigration reform of 1921
rolled back immigration to 357,000 a year. In 1924 the law was revised again,
rolling back immigration to 160,000 a year. By the late 1920s -- a period of
rapid economic growth -- immigration was down to 50,000 a year. Restrictive
policies remained in place until 1965.
Liberals and people of color supported the change. The American Federation of
Labor s Samuel Gompers, himself an immigrant, saw mass immigration as an
economic threat to union members. "Immigration is, in its fundamental aspects,
a labor problem," Gompers said in 1925. [Immigration Policy: The Nations Most
Fundamental Labor Law, Vernon M. Briggs, Perspectives in Business, 5(1), 5-9,
2008] Black civil rights leader A. Phillip Randolph, then a Socialist,
complained that the Harding-Coolidge quotas did not go far enough:
"We favor reducing [immigration] to nothing....shutting out the Germans....
Italians.... Hindus.... Chinese.... and even the Negroes from the West Indies.
The country is suffering from immigration indigestion....excessive immigration
is against the masses of all races and nationalities in the country."
"Immigration and Japan," The Messenger (August 1924)
Not until the Harding-Coolidge immigration restrictions and the mother of all
stimulus packages -- World War II -- were Black Americans able to leave the
agrarian south for industrial jobs in large northern cities. When mass
immigration stopped native-born minorities and whites advanced, just as A.
Phillip Randolph and Samuel Gompers said they would.
If only Obama s summiteers had their insight -- and their courage.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.indiapost.com/us-news/6436-Sudden-increase-demand-for-H1B-visa-USCIS.html
IndiaPost - Voice of Indians Worldwide: Sudden increase in demand for H1B
visa: USCIS
Sudden increase in demand for H1B visa: USCIS =========================
========================= ========================= ===== IP News on
04/12/2009 10:48:00
Latest figures released by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS)
show an increase in the number of people applying for H-1B visas in the last
two months.
As a result of which, till November 27, the USCIS had received about 58,900 H-
1B petitions. This is still over 6,000 short of the Congressionally-mandated
cap of 65,000 H-1B visas in the general category.
The USCIS has approved sufficient H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced
degrees to meet the exemption of 20,000 from the fiscal year 2010 cap.
According to the periodic figures released by USCIS, in the past two months
more than 12,000 H-1B visas have been filed.
In the beginning of October, more than 18,000 H-1B visas were vacant.
Primarily meant for professionals from computers and information technology
sectors, the H-1B visas have been one of the most sought-after visas for
foreign professionals in previous years.
The USCIS had earlier been receiving applications several times the number of
the allocated quota.
This is for the first time in many years that the quota for the H-1B visa has
not been filled up till the end of the year. For instance, in 2008, the H-1B
quota was met in one day.
This is mainly attributed to the poor economic situation in the US, high
unemployment rate and Congressional provisions which prevent hiring of people
on H-1B visas by companies which have received federal bailout money.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141648/H_1B_demand_spike_may_signal_improving_outlook_for_skilled_pros
H-1B demand spike may signal improving outlook for skilled pros Economic
confidence may have spurred sudden demand for visas, college grads Patrick
Thibodeau December 2, 2009 (Computerworld) WASHINGTON -- Demand for H-1B
visas has accelerated over the last six to eight weeks after being flat for
months.
This comes as the number of companies planning to increase college hiring is
also on the rise. Together, the trends may be early indicators of an improving
economy for skilled professionals.
Throughout summer and into September, demand for H-1B visas flatlined at about
45,000 visa petitions. But on Friday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Service released data showing that in two weeks alone it had received 3,300 H-
1B petitions, continuing a spike that began in October that has increased the
number of visas petitions to 58,900, approaching the 65,000 cap.
A separate H-1B cap of 20,000 for foreign workers who have earned an advanced
degree from U.S. universities was reached in October.
If this demand for visas continues, the H-1B cap for the 2010 fiscal year may
be met in a matter of days to early next year, according to estimates from a
number of immigration attorneys.
An improving economic outlook and confidence in hiring may be driving this
increase. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), an
organization whose members include large companies of 7,000 employees or more
that include tech firms, said that in its member survey for November that 28%
of respondents planned to increase college hiring, compared with 17% in
August.
"College hiring has started to look better, much better than it did," said Ed
Koc, who heads research at association. He said that anywhere from one-third
to half of students in graduate programs are foreign nationals.
Koc also points out that the unemployment rate for college graduates holding
bachelor's degrees in October was 4.7%, down from 4.9% in September, according
to U.S. labor data.
Sarah Hawk, who heads the immigration practice at Fisher & Phillips LLP in
Atlanta, said she see a clear correlation between H-1B petition increases and
student hiring. Companies that have workers on student visas are applying for
H-1B visas in anticipation of improved budgets.
But Hawk and other immigration attorneys say the H-1B demand is now broader,
and includes many occupations outside of IT.
Vic Goel, of Goel & Anderson LLC in Reston, Va., said he has seen an increase
in H-1B visa petitions in the last six to eight weeks, but also "a significant
overall decline in the number of H-1Bs that we are filing for pure play IT
positions." But he said, "I have seen slight increases in cases for school
teachers, engineers, management analysts, product development roles [and other
positions.]"
Brian Graham, of Strasburger & Price LLP in Dallas, said the increase in
demand started in October. He is seeing "more interest in new hiring all
across the board in different industries," including high-tech, nursing, and,
in particulr, gaming development such as for multi-player games.
Goel said there are some procedural reasons behind this increase. Companies
that had foreign employees in the U.S. working on L-1B visas are, in some
cases, moving these employees to H-1B visas because its standards are clearer
and it offers more certainty about an employee's ability to work in the U.S.
Goel also points out that once the immigration agency started demanding more
documentation in support of H-1B visas this summer, many employers were caught
off-guard and saw their petitions denied or moved to withdraw them.
"Many of those cases are now being re-filed since the employers have been able
to gather the requested evidence in the intervening months," Goel said.
Seasonal demand may also be at work. H-1B petitions are also being filed for
students who completed degree requirements this semester. Employers may also
be acting now rather than risk waiting to next year and the possibility of a
visa lottery, if demand exceeds the cap. The H-1B visa is at the heart of an
intense debate.
Opponents view H-1B hiring as means to bring in young workers at lower wages
and deprive U.S. workers of jobs, which was one of arguments made by the
Programmers Guild in its lawsuit challenging an extension of the student visa
program. Business proponents say they should be able to hire foreign students
as easily as U.S. students.
Offshore firms in India depend on the visa to conduct business in the U.S., a
practice that may be curbed if legislation by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and
Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) if a bill they get that limits visa holders, including
L-1 visas, to half of workforce. The Indian firms see any effort to restrain
visas as a trade issue; Grassley and Durbin have called it "legal
discrimination."
Regardless of reasons for or against the visa, Randall Sidlosca, an
immigration attorney at Miami-based Fowler White Burnett PA, says he believes
an improving economy is behind more H-1B petitions, because some of his
clients are planning to ramp up their operations in 2010.
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