Quota of 20,000 H1B visas exhausted

[Judi Lynn]

Quota of 20,000 H1B visas exhausted
7/30/2006 11:43:31 PM
- By PTI

Washington, July 30: The slot of 20,000 visas in the H1B category reserved for those who have master’s degrees or higher from American institutions has been exhausted for fiscal year 2007, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has said.

H1B visas, usually availed in large numbers by Indians, allow United States employers to have access to highly educated foreign professionals who have experience in specialised areas. The visa programme allows American companies and universities to employ foreign scientists, engineers and programmers in the United States.

The USCIS said that a determination has been made that the final receipt date for these exemptions is July 26, 2006 applications and that petitions received on July 26, 2006 are subject to a random selection process.

"USCIS will reject petitions requesting a foreign worker with a master’s or higher degree earned from a US institution of higher education that are received after the ‘final receipt date’ unless the petition is otherwise eligible for a separate cap exemption," the agency said in a statement.
(snip/...)

http://www.asianage.com/main.asp?layout=2&cat1=3&cat2=33&newsid=238579&RF=DefaultMain

[DianeG5385]

1. Well I guess that means they have to hire AMERICANS then

and pay a fair wage (not the crappy wages they pay the H1B guys and girls which for THEM is good money) unless the gov't of the USofA screws us once again by upping the quota so their corparate sponsors don't squeal too much!

[MADem]

2. Ahhh, but they raised the minimum wage!!!

So, ya want fries with that spreadsheet???

[Xipe Totec]

4. No, unfortunately, they don't have to hire Americans

Instead, the jobs will go to where the workers are; they will move overseas.

Instead of creating new jobs, this will eliminate jobs in the US, and the tax revenue that would have come from those jobs.

These highly skilled professionals will eventually start their own companies. And these companies will not be American companies.

There is a dark side to blocking workers from coming here.

[megatherium]

5. You have a good point, but the job market in some areas of

high tech are relatively small, and easily swamped by immigrants if the government allows too many in. This happened in the early 1990s in mathematics and physics, at the doctoral level. Unemployment of new PhDs in the US in these fields was 15% with another 10% of underemployment (part-time positions). I was on the job market in that era, and I was damned lucky to get a tenure-track faculty position--at $30K in a mediocre university in a part of the country I didn't really want to move to. (Things have improved since then; this year unemployment among new PhDs in mathematics was 3%, and starting salaries in academia are in the high 40s.)

[unlawflcombatnt]

8. No, the jobs will go where the workers are Cheaper

There is no shortage of Americans to do ANY of these jobs. There are literally hundreds of thousands of Americans trained in high tech jobs that have had to take jobs in lesser-paying, lesser skilled areas, because their jobs have been taken by H1Bs who'll work for less or because the jobs have been outsourced to countries where workers of equivalent skills will take much less in wages.

The only "dark" side to this is that Corporate America will be forced to pay the market rate for American labor if they remain in the United States, or they'll have to pay the expense of moving their operations overseas to exploit lower-paid workers. The "dark" side is that Corporate America's incessant greed to increase already exorbitant profits will go not be satisfied. They'll have to settle for slightly less exorbitant profits.

The only "shortage" of workers is that of high-skilled workers who'll work for low-skilled wages.

unlawflcombatnt

EconomicPopulistCommentary

EconomicPatriotForum

___________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."

[prole100]

3. Translation - 20,000 More Unemployed Americans

eom

[lindisfarne]

6. There is also a separate TN series of visas which allows professional

from Canada and Mexico to work in the US.

[onyourleft]

7. Does this mean that my husband might find

a job now after 8 months? I won't hold my breath as, after all, he only has a Bachelor's, Master's, all course work finished for his Ph.D. in mathematics and 25+ years of experience. You know, one of those without enough education or skills to be employed here in the U.S. However, there is that pesky problem with age to overcome, too. He just turned 59 and tell me again how there is no age discrimination. Do I sound bitter? You bet I am and angry. Every time I hear someone on CNBC spewing how corporations just "cannot find highly educated people" here in the U.S., I want to scream. What they cannot find are highly educated people that they do not have to pay a living wage. (Rant off). Thanks for listening. :)

[unlawflcombatnt]

9. Exactly

You hit the nail right on the head. A lot of us feel the same way. The Right-Wing Corporatists just keep spewing their propaganda about how they can't find Americans to do the work. What they really mean is they can't find Americans who'll accept a low enough wage to do the work, to keep labor costs down, and increase Corporate America's already disgustingly exorbitant profits.

unlawflcombatnt

EconomicPopulistCommentary

EconomicPatriotForum

___________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."