As the US immigration agency gets ready to accept applications for the annual grant of the much-coveted H-1B work visas, a prominent American body of engineers has raised objections to the ongoing moves in the US Congress to expand this visa programme that has predominantly benefited Indian software professionals over the past decade.
In a strongly-worded statement, the IEEE-USA (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) has opposed the transfer of high-paying jobs to foreign professionals. It has come down particularly hard on the top 10 companies using the H-1B visas, several of whom are Indian IT companies.
“The H-1B programme shouldn’t be used to facilitate the transfer of high-paying jobs to other countries,” IEEE-USA president Marc Apter said, adding: “If Congress wants a full US economic recovery, it shouldn’t even be thinking about expanding it.”
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B petitions on April 1 for the grant of 65,000 work visas for the American fiscal year 2014 that begins on October 1, 2013. Effectively, an additional 20,000 H-1B visas are available to foreign individuals with US master’s or higher degrees.
While opposing an expansion of H-1B visas, as demanded by the US tech industry for years, the IEEE-USA says it supports legislation providing employment-based green cards for skilled immigrants earning advanced STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Math) degrees from US colleges and universities, and their dependents. It argues that green cards, unlike H-1B visas, allow immigrants to start their own companies, many of which will create jobs in the United States.
Citing the “Computerworld” magazine anlaysis of H-1B visa approvals last year, noting that the largest single users of these visas are “offshore outsourcers, many of which are based in India”, Apter commented that starting next week, proponents of H-1B visa expansion would bemoan the fact that this visa cap has already been used up.
“But it was outsourcing companies – businesses who use the visas to take American jobs – who used nearly two-thirds of them,” he said. last year’s top users of H-1B visas were Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, Accenture, HCl America, Mahindra Group, IBM, larsen & Toubro and Deloitte, in that order.
The IEEE-USA claims that the top “offshore outsourcers” have already applied for more H-1B visas than will be available in 2013. “Data compiled by the Department of labor Office of Foreign labor Certification shows that the top 10 companies applying for H-1B visas in the first three months of FY 2013 are all offshore outsourcing companies,” it said.