Foreign workers like puppets on string

Last week I gave an overview of the H-1B visa programme that the US government implemented 11 years ago to attract foreign nationals in the technology sector and other fields to the United States. It is an employer-initiated programme in which companies, unable to fill IT positions, sponsor professionals to come and work here on an H-1B visa that is valid for a maximum of six years.

"The H-1B visa programme definitely benefits the US economy," said Mr Jon Jessen, who practices immigration law in Stamford, Connecticut. "Employers tell us the demand is there and there are not enough Americans to do the jobs. They have to go outside the US to get these people.

"From an immigration point of view," Mr Jessen said, it's a "great programme. It streamlines the process of getting a worker from another country to come here or, if they are already here on a visitor visa, to change their status to an H-1B. It's a quicker process than a family member sponsoring another family member to get here."

The United States Congress passed a bill last October to help ease the shortage of technology workers in the US and it raised the quota for the number of H-1B visas from 107,500 to 195,000 over a three-year period. The changes were supposed to expedite the process but, in fact, have slowed it down.

It used to take one to two months for an employer's application to go through, now it takes at least four months, Mr Jessen said. "We're moving away from the whole purpose of the H-1B," he added. "An employer is anxious to get the person here to start working."

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) recently passed a rule that states an employer can pay a $1,000 (€1,140) premium processing fee on pending and newly filed applications to speed up the process. This rule went into effect on July 30th and the INS says it can process an application in 15 days. Companies can use a dedicated phone line and e-mail to deal with the INS to check on the status of the application.

By the beginning of next year, the INS expects to collect $80 million annually from the programme - money it will put towards training American workers.

Mr Jessen said he knows of at least one large corporation that has done blanket applications for several Indian nationals. It sponsors them to work in the US, pays their housing near the office, works them hard and when the work is finished, sends them home.

"I know in the computer field there is huge demand for H-1Bs," Mr Jessen said.

Mr Narendar Ande (27), from Hyderabad in India, is working as a computer consultant at MetLife in New Jersey. His cousin forwarded his curriculum vitae to a company in Texas that interviewed him. They then asked him to send original documents, such as a passport and degree certificates, and in December 1999 filed for an H-1B for him.

The INS approved it in January 2000, he received his papers that March and picked up his visa at the consulate in Madras. Mr Ande's visa expires in December 2002 and, in order to stay here, he will need his existing employer or any other company to apply for an extension.

Compared to India, where generally people work more than 10 hours a day and don't get paid overtime, in the US "we work only eight hours a day and, if you have talent, it pays", Mr. Ande said.

"The IT industry is relatively new in India. It started growing as an industry in the mid-1990s but in the US it's been around for more than two decades. On the whole, I feel the work atmosphere in the US is more casual and I love it."

However, Mr. Ande still sees some loopholes with the H-1B visa process.

"A person on an H-1B is like a puppet in the hands of the employer," he said. "Body shoppers hire skilled professionals from countries like India for less pay. At the time of filing an H-1B, the employer compels the person to sign an agreement to work for the company for a certain period of time.

"If the employee gets a better opportunity he cannot take it. Most companies do not pay consultants when they are out of a job and no-one dares to fight this as they do not want to get into the legal complications. Moreover, if you are out of a job for a month, you will become out of status which can affect the green card process."

Mr Emmanuel Cardakaris (39), a computer programmer from Sydney who works for a consulting firm based in New Jersey, said when he arrived in the US from Australia in May 2000 he met about 10 people who are no longer with the company.

"They have been let go without getting a green card. I don't know what happened to them. I only ever found out they were gone after coming off assignment and asking where they were," he said.

"My employer over the last year has had two or three mass purges, where they have had a lot of people on the bench, say eight people or over, and then got rid of most of them. Although I have spent a lot of time on the bench, each of these events occurred while I was on billing. My employer pays employees who are not working, so a full bench is an expensive overhead."

Mr Cardakaris said he came to the United States with two intentions: to see the country and to get some professional experience. "Professionally, it has been a disaster," he said. "I work for an organisation that supplies IT staff on a temporary basis to other companies. If that assignment happens to coincide with my professional goals, and does not involve a horror commute, then fine, but such a situation appears rare."

During his first eight months he worked on two projects where he needed to write documentation and to drive two hours each way. His next assignment was actual programming.

"Unfortunately, the client misidentified his own needs and I was assigned only two to three days work over an eight-week period and the rest of the time I was idle."

"This is a serious problem," he said. "IT people, like me, need to keep their skills current and long periods of being out of practice affect my professional ability."

When an H-1B worker tries to find a new employer, his status can be a disadvantage. Many companies are reluctant to fill out the paperwork that is needed in the H-1B application process.

Overall, Mr Cardakaris said, the H-1B programme appears to be a way for US corporations to reduce their IT manpower expense by undercutting US IT salaries with low-cost immigrants.

"My view is that the IT shortage definitely existed until this year at least. As for undercutting salaries, it's no surprise that if US organisations can get workers for less, they will."

Although H-1B rules state that employers should not pay H-1B employees less than the average for their skills and region, Mr Cardakaris said this rule was not clearly enforced.

"A lot of the H-1Bs I work with don't get what I consider to be anything close to the going rate."

He said there was reluctance on the part of IT departments, in the US and Australia, to train their own people.

"If this shortage exists and is such a serious problem, why not invest some dollars in training? The answer that I have heard in the past is that employees with new skills will simply leave for better jobs but I have always been more inclined to leave places where there is no employee development than places where there is."

carolpower@ireland.com