H-1B visa cap (and readers’ limits) reached
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Tuesday that it has received enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally mandated cap for fiscal year 2009.
And given the more than 70 comments posted to EDN’s recent blog “Wanted or not, H-1B visa process starts on April 1,” it’s safe to say that our readers have reached their limits when it comes to H-1Bs. It’s a rare occurrence when our EE-based audience chimes in so heavily on a topic, especially in our non-tech news blog Now Hear This!. In fact out of the total 83 Now Hear This! entries, only one other post has garnered more comments (see “EEs have terrorist mindset, Oxford University paper suggests”).
Here are the facts from the USCIS this week:
- The agency, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, by the way, allowed H-1B petitions to be filed for five business days starting on April 1. USCIS has not stated when the number of petition put forward met its 2009 H-1B visa cap of 65,000 during the submission period.
- In addition, USCIS said it also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the “advanced degree” exemption. The agency will conduct the selection process on these petitions first and said that all such petitions not chosen will be part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit. (EDN’s translation: In addition to competing for H-1B visas within the already large pool of petitions filed for the 65,000 slots, overflow from the advanced degree exemption will be poured in, making the odds of an H-1B petition being selected that much slimmer.)
- As it always does, USCIS will carry out a computer-generated random selection process for all cap-subject petitions received. The agency said that, because of the “high number” of petitions received, it is not yet able to announce the precise day on which it will conduct the random selection process. Before running the random selection process, USCIS said it will complete initial data entry for all filings received during the filing period ending on April 7.
- Finally, the USCIS said it will reject and return filing fees for all cap-subject petitions not randomly selected, unless found to be a duplicate. USCIS will handle duplicate filings in accordance with the interim final rule published on March 24 in the Federal Register.
More or less, the competition for these visas has become fierce and so has the argument on them. While many of our blog readers feel the artificial caps are “ridiculous” and should be removed, many still feel the caps should be upheld and reduced. Some comments suggest that foreign workers should not be allowed to compete for United States jobs at all and that there is no shortage of homegrown talent.
Interestingly, many of our readers boiled this issue down to one of supply and demand, suggesting that here in the US we already have too many EEs to keep salaries and employment high.
Reader Peter J. Merkin on April 1 said: “Lets face it, engineers are a commodity. If there truly was a ‘shortage,’ wages would rise and companies would not dump them when they turn 50. When the CEO of Bear Stearns get $380 million of taxpayer money on the way out the door after corkscrewing his company into the ground, we are lectured to by the MBA’s the ‘Well, you have to pay for talent.’ If engineers are needed, companies will ‘pay for talent.’ Until then, the only occupations with a future are: business (MBA), medicine, or law.”
“Engineers at my company get treated like line workers, but we put in many more hours/day. As long as H-1B visas continue to get extended, wages will remain low, respect low, and fewer will look to the field of engineering for a career. I agree we’re in a global economy and diversification is good, but there needs to be a firm limit,” a reader who identified himself as Tom said on March 31.
Also on March 31, reader Bill99 commented: “It is not a shortage of engineering talent in this country. It is that there is a shortage of talent that talent so desperate that they will work for the slave labor that the wealthy are willing to pay. To top things off, if we do not get the influx of desperate foreign engineers, those companies will outsource the jobs even if means compromising national security by allowing our technology and tax base to go abroad. They seem willing to risk our very economic structure for their greed. The wealthy never seem to realize that the future of our nation is at risk when they participate in the race to the bottom salary. Henry Ford paid his employees a salary that allowed them to afford to buy his product. Our MBAs seem to have forgotten that.”
The argument has been raging on for more than a week now in our original blog post. Bravo to all of our readers who have voiced their opinions on this very important topic. Congress and the USCIS may not be listening, but your peers certainly are. And your comments continue to be welcomed. Share your thoughts on the USCIS’ update on H-1Bs this week or the overall engineer employment situation below.
–Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News
WP commented:
WP Themes commented:
Vigrx Plus commented:
BobURUncle commented:
desilva commented:
shaltot commented:
AD commented:
vijay pats commented:
Patterson commented:
adam mickievitch commented:
Jason commented:
George commented:
Hank commented:
Meredith Poor commented:
John commented:
Allen commented:
Frank commented:
Shan commented:
Virgilius commented:
rb commented:
RN commented:
Brian commented:
joe commented:
Stever commented:
true american commented:
Bob commented:
rc commented:
american commented:
George Bush commented:
BillyBob commented:
Congress is slow commented:
muscle labor vs. brain labor commented:
visas commented:
Bob commented:
M commented:
Edmundo Gerardo commented:
Edmundo Gerardo commented:
Andrew commented:
Cadfael commented:
BillyBob commented:
Bill P commented:
Bill Grayson commented:
Tedd commented:
Meredith Poor commented:















