Download Debate on H-1B visas persistent The program has

Debate on H-1B visas persistent The program has been controversial, given strain in the
job market
Scott Nishimura
Publication Date: April 8, 2012 Page: D01 Section: Business Zone: Tarrant
Edition: Main
International workers in the U.S.
Hetal Bhatt had more qualifications than were required in 2008 when he applied for a job
as a traffic engineer with the city of Arlington.
His résumé included a master's degree in civil engineering, a professional engineer's
license, and three years working for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
Paul Iwuchukwu, the city traffic engineer, says that the job had been open for some time
and that he had seen a number of candidates. But with Cowboys Stadium preparing to
open, the traffic division had its hands full, and he was looking for someone who needed
little training.
"Sometimes, you need somebody who already has his feet wet," Iwuchukwu said. "We
badly needed the help. We badly needed the skills."
Bhatt, who moved from India eight years ago to study at the University of Texas at
Arlington, holds an H-1B visa, federal documentation that allows foreign workers with
special skills like engineering to work here and, if they want, apply for permanent
residency.
With the continued strain in the job market, the H-1B program has been a source of
controversy, particularly among long-term unemployed workers. It hit the spotlight in
January when a Fort Worth woman asked President Barack Obama in an online chat why
companies are allowed to hire foreign workers while her engineer husband can't find a
job.
Last year, Texas ranked third among the states in H-1B visa applications, used by
businesses to fill jobs they supposedly can't fill at home, with more than 31,000, trailing
California and New York. Eight Texas cities ranked among the top 100 in applicants
including Houston at No. 2, Dallas (11) and Fort Worth (91), government figures show.
Employers including Deloitte, Dell and the Dallas school district were among the state's
leading users of H-1B visas, which tend to focus on high-tech positions like computer
analysts and software engineers.
Proponents say that the program lets employers deal with shortages in key fields like
engineering and that it fosters innovation and global partnerships by encouraging links
between Americans and skilled foreigners. They argue that the government should either
increase the annual cap on new H-1B visas - now 65,000, plus 20,000 for workers with
master's degrees - or eliminate it altogether. Universities and research institutions are
exempt from the limit.
"At a time of globalization, it makes so much sense," said Jean-Pierre Bardet, dean of the
College of Engineering at UTA. "These people who have technical expertise will create
more jobs. If we have more technical skills, it will benefit everyone."
But critics say employers often use the program to pay below-market wages or train other
employees in preparation for outsourcing operations overseas. The critics say that
employers, except those classified as dependent on H-1B workers, don't have to prove
they can't find similarly qualified people in the United States and that the government
needs to change the program to include better tracking.
The government, for example, isn't certain exactly how many H-1B holders are in the
country. The initial H-1B visa is for three years. It can be renewed for three years and in
some cases longer, depending upon whether the worker is applying for permanent
residency.
"The way I see it, about a third of H-1B use is probably on the up and up, about a third is
now being used for offshore outsourcing, about a third is being used for low-cost
workers," said Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of
Technology and a noted supporter of revamping the system.
Congress has batted the issue around, with Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Richard
Durbin, D-Ill., floating a bipartisan reform bill a few years ago that died. There's nothing
pending in Congress now, except a movement to create a special visa for people from
Ireland, Hira said.
H-1Bs have powerful proponents in business and politics who, while acknowledging
flaws in the system, say the program is too important.
"The government doesn't know how many skilled workers are needed each year - only
the market does," New York's Republican mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said in a speech
last year to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Temporary visas "help fill critical gaps in our workforce, but the numbers are too few and
the filing process too long and unpredictable," he said, arguing that the cap on H-1Bs
should be scrapped.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, told a
subcommittee last year that the H-1B program plays a "vital role" in the U.S. economy,
allowing companies and institutions to hire foreign students from U.S. universities who
have degrees in science, technology, math and engineering.
But Smith said Congress, if it doesn't increase the cap, should examine the kinds of
workers who qualify. Beyond technology, foreign workers have received H-1Bs to work
in the U.S. as fashion models, dancers, chefs, photographers and social workers, he said.
"There is nothing wrong with those occupations, but I am not sure that foreign fashion
models and pastry chefs are as crucial to our success in the global economy as computer
scientists," Smith said.
The debate is above the pay grade for people like Bhatt, 31, who came to study in what
he calls the world's finest country for engineering education. He met and married his
wife, who is also from India and was getting a master's at UTA. They're both doctoral
students there. Bhatt is working full time and studying part time toward his Ph.D. in
traffic flow theory.
The H-1B debate is "up to the decision-makers," said Bhatt, who designs traffic signals
for the city. "I'm not a decision-maker. Given the opportunity, I will give my best
output."
Bhatt was interested in the city job because he saw the Super Bowl coming and wanted to
work on traffic for the big game. He worked on the route, parking, safety design, traffic
flow and signage. Those temporary one-way streets? His fingerprints were all over those.
Most people might listen to the news or music in the radio while waiting at a traffic light.
"I count down the seconds," Bhatt says. "I anticipate when the red light will end. It
annoys my wife sometimes."
Whitney Jodry, a spokeswoman for Texas Instruments, the No. 5 sponsor of H-1B
holders in Texas last year, said the company has a "strong emphasis on hiring the best
talent" and that TI's U.S. operations place a high priority on hiring American citizens.
But the shortage of electrical engineers in the U.S. forces the company to look elsewhere
for talent, she said. TI often hires foreign nationals, "of which the majority are graduates
from U.S. universities with advanced electrical engineering degrees," Jodry said in an email.
Jodry said TI also continues to invest in science, technology, and math programs from
kindergarten through 12th grade.
The "longer-term solution is to ensure more American students are pursuing STEM
[science, technology, engineering and math] degrees and careers," Jodry said.
Skills and pay have dominated much of the debate over expanding the H-1B program.
Pia Orrenius, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said
employers often gravitate toward recent college graduates for fields such as computer
programming.
"It comes down to the cutting edge typically with these occupations," Orrenius said. "If
it's technology, they're usually looking for the most recent graduates with the latest
tools."
Older workers may not have those skill sets, she said.
A paper presented in January by Public Policy Institute of California researchers raised a
stir in contending that H-1B holders aren't paid less than their U.S. counterparts, when the
relative youth of the H-1B population is taken into account. The researchers, in analyzing
2009 national data, also found that H-1B workers were "comparatively highly skilled"
compared with U.S. workers.
Other findings:
* Average age of H-1B holders in the 2009 data was 32, versus 41.4 for U.S. natives.
12.7 percent of H-1Bs had a nonprofessional doctoral degree, versus 4.6 percent for U.S.born workers.
* 42 percent of H-1Bs are in information technology, whereas just under 10 percent of
U.S.-born workers with a bachelor's are in IT.
* New H-1B workers in information technology earned about 7 percent less than U.S.born IT workers. But the pay of H-1B holders renewing visas after three years rose 16
percent, "pointing toward an earnings advantage for H-1B IT workers overall."
Hira remained a critic.
"The facts still remain that the median wage for new H-1Bs in computer occupations
remains below the entry-level wages for newly minted bachelor's degree holders in
computer science," he said.
Hira said an estimated 600,000 to 750,000 H-1B visa holders work in the United States.
With some employers exempt from the limit, the "real number" of new H-1Bs is about
115,000 annually, Hira said.
"If you look how they're concentrated in the tech sector, that has a major impact on labor
supply, particularly if they're not paid market wage," he said.
A raft of other reports and studies have found problems in the H-1B program.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services found evidence in 2008 of forged
documents and H-1B holders misrepresenting their status and said 1 in 5 visas is
fraudulent or violates the rules.
A GAO report recommended changes in the program including better linking of
government databases to facilitate tracking of H-1B workers and provisions holding
employers who hire H-1B workers from staffing agencies to the same requirements as
other employers of H-1B workers.
Scott Nishimura, 817-390-7808
Top H-1B visa states
Applicants
Average salary
California
65,620
$85,290
New York
41,722
$90,359
Texas
31,399
$75,365
New Jersey
23,588
$73,949
Illinois
18,571
$74,266
Source: myvisajobs.com
Texas cities and the H-1B
Eight cities were among the nation's top 100 for H-1B applicants in 2011.
Rank
Applicants
Average salary
2. Houston
9,613
$80,980
11. Dallas
3,487
$71,300
16. Austin
2,813
$77,579
22. Irving
2,336
$70,997
26. Plano
1,914
$75,671
41. San Antonio
1,287
$69,501
42. Richardson
1,275
$72,793
91. Fort Worth
654
$72,612
Source: myvisajobs.com
Texas' largest H-1B employers
Employer
Applicants
Average salary
1. Deloitte Consulting
417
$96,312
2. Dell
353
$94,090
3. IBM
332
$93,471
4. Dallas schools
290
$47,885
5. Texas Instruments
256
$91,775
15. UT Southwestern Medical Center
178
$48,925
25. Verizon Communications
131
$89,008
47. UT-Dallas
73
$64,444
50. American Airlines
71
$85,191
57. Exxon Mobil
65
$154,861
Source: myvisajobs.com
Top U.S. H-1B visa occupations
Technology is the most-sought skill set among H-1B visa applicants. Here's a look at the
largest H-1B occupations in 2011.
Occupation
Applicants
Avg. salary
Computer systems analyst
46,106
$72,541
Computer programmers
43,118
$63,980
Software engineers-applications
29,434
$89,356
Software engineers-systems software
10,766
$96,780
Software developers-applications
9,982
$90,053
Financial analysts
8,147
$95,243
Management analysts
7,766
$83,262
Mechanical engineers
6,155
$75,382
Physicians and surgeons
5,688
$128,755
Electrical engineers
5,609
$84,418
Source: myvisajobs.com
Top U.S. H-1B industries in 2011
Industry
Applicants
Avg. salary
Computer systems design and related services
132,051
$72,398
Colleges, universities, professional schools
25,352
$64,439
Management, scientific, technical consulting
16,323
$84,989
Architectural, engineering, related services
11,784
$73,324
Software publishers
8,756
$93,643
Scientific research and development services
8,659
$75,108
General medical and surgical hospitals.
8,006
$97,122
Semiconductor and other component manufacturing
7,193
$95,308
Securities and commodity contracts intermediation and brokerage
6,371
$112,607
Elementary and secondary schools
6,280
$48,676
Source: myvisajobs.com
H-1B facts
What's an H-1B visa? The federal program allows workers in specialty occupations to
work in the U.S. for up to six years and to apply for permanent residency. H-1Bs can be
renewed for longer than six years depending on the status of the permanent residency
case.
What are the core specialty occupations? They are IT, computing, finance, accounting,
banking, marketing, advertising, public relations, sales, recruiting, engineering, teaching,
healthcare, legal, networking, telecom, business management and hospitality.
What's the annual cap? 65,000 workers per fiscal year, with exemptions for 20,000 others
who have master's degrees or higher.
Are industries exempt from the cap? Yes. Higher-education and affiliated nonprofits,
nonproftit research organizations and government research organizations.
Source: H1base.com, Star-Telegram research
(C) The Star-Telegram 2012