WSJ first annual CEO Council identified and ranked the 18 priorities list facing the Obama when he starts the office in January.

Immigration reform is #8 of the list. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano name has been mentioned as probable DHS (Department of Homeland Security) head. Napolitano is a strong advocate of increasing H-1B visas and for "immigration reforms" this is good which may boost the discussions and eventually may get good visibility in the following list.

Here is top 18 list -

* FISCAL STIMULUS
* EDUCATED WORKFORCE
* ECONOMIC VISION
* COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY/ENVIRO POLICY:
* LONG-TERM TAX POLICY
* CORPORATE TAX RATE
* DEFINE VALUE, REFORM PAYMENT
* EXPAND IMMIGRATION OPPORTUNITIES: Expand Visa and Greencard
programs to allow talented foreign nationals who have studied in
the U.S. to remain in the U.S. and to allow talent recruitment
abroad.
* NEW TRADE AGENDA
* TORT REFORM
* REGULATORY OVERHAUL
* FIGHT OBESITY
* ELECTRIC CARS
* UNIVERSAL HEALTH INSURANCE
* DECARBONIZE POWER SECTOR
* ENERGY EFFICIENCY
* BUILD HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE
* BUY ILLIQUID ASSETS

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Labels: Barack Obama, H-1B visa, Homeland Security Department, Immigration, India, Janet Napolitano

Channel insider collected all job seekers comments and posted the details of the current job market crisis. Employers are paying low salaries for IT jobs is the central point of all the comments it received.

Outsourcing is a hit or miss - One comment about H1-B is quite interesting and It is true to some extent I feel "The worse thing that ever happened to U.S. businesses is the advent of the H1B visas and international outsourcing." Employers want all technologies in a person but pays 30 to 40% lower than market rates , 12 to 17$ per hour , make existing employee work overtime with out additional pay, $30k to $50K for a experienced web developer.

If this is the case then we can imagine the productivity of the work done by low rate charged employees. Historically US productivity is superior and only future will tell us how this model of employers going for cheap low pay rates will work out or not.

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The suspense is over of what will be the cut off dates for EB2 and EB3 category in October'2008 Visa Bulletin. The October month is when the new fiscal year begins for visa number allotments. The allotments at start of year is always cheering to the numerous immigrants waiting for Greencard approvals.

The Mumbai consulate released the cut-off dates today --



Many predictions were that EB2 will slow down and EB3 changes significantly from unavailable to a much advanced date. Mumbai cut-off dates are available now and its back to square one. For EB2 dates are retrogressed to 1 April 2003 where as for EB3 it is 1 July 2001. Some pleasing news for EB3 as it changed from "Unavailable".

Unless the legislation to acquire all unused past Green card numbers is passed, the wait to become numbers current is a day dream.

Here is the link you can find October's 2008 visa bulletin from USCIS

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Labels: eb-2, eb-3, Fiscal year, H-1B visa, Immigration, Mumbai, United States, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, Visa

A U.S. district court judge, Faith Hochberg in New Jersey rules in favor of new US grads extension of student visas. With limited 85,000 H1-B visas out of which only 20,000 H1-B's are allocated for students which forces other new grads go out of status and eventually forces them to leave the US. H1-B's have become a lottery where odds are very less these days to get an H1-B visas in the lottery.

Homeland Security extended 12 months to 29 months for students visas to convert to H1-B as they can stay in US and work during that period and until they get H1-B visa.

The Programmers Guild, a strong advocate against the H1-B visa program filed this suit. The wage depression argument is over ruled by the judge indicating lack of proper evidence. Programmers Guild from time to time filed many discrimination complaints against H-1B employers.

This is good news for all student graduates with F1 visas now that they can get more breathing time until they convert their F1 visas to H1-B.

Labels: F1, H-1B visa, Immigration, New Jersey, Programmers Guild, United States, US

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeSays who ? The report from John Miano titled -- The H1B Visa Sham -- discussed the mismatch between number of H1-B visas approved for the fiscal year and the number of jobs created in that industry (both computers and engineering).

As opposed to popular belief John's argument is that there is no direct relationship between H1-Bs and their job creation. Is this measurable ? I doubt it as you cannot just count numbers from the same industry. It is possible that as a result of H1-Bs the jobs are created in related industries if not in the computer industry. This is difficult to quantify.

H1-Bs approvals are 16000 where as jobs lost is 76000 -- This to some extent may account for H1-Bs converting to permanent residents and the conversion is not accounted for. Probably H1-Bs are filling the jobs of once H1-bs but now legal residents.

large percentage of those who legally enter United States on H-1B visas go into the illegal alien pool -- No wonder we hear daily the companies scams and their arrests news. Recently Nilesh Dasondi of Cygate Software & Consulting Inc illegally sponsored visas for six people and they came to US and never worked on H1-Bs.

John's report may be very well true but statistics presented may tell us a different story that a person obtaining H1-B in California usually doesn't work in California but may go to some other city which I think was happening for the unaccounted numbers.

Overall the report puts the focus on numbers mismatch with the reality. correct measures (or system) are required to track this H1-B non-immigrants.

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Labels: California, Employment, H-1B visa, Immigration, John Miano, microsoft, RAND, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, United States

This article in Gazette highlights the problems that Maryland employers facing as a result of 85000 H1-B visa cap. Getting H1-B in US is a lottery system now with so many applicants fiercely competing for meager 65,000 H1-B visas.

Students in US are some what better off in the sense that they can work on F1 visa for 29 months and apply for 20,000 H1-B visas available.

Chamber of commerce's lobbying was not working to increase the cap back to 195,000 quota of 2003.

Is H1-B effecting the salaries and jobs taken away from US workers ?

Globalization and the American IT Worker(pdf).

A number of studies have found that the H-1Bs are paid on average 15% to 33% less than comparable U.S. IT workers.Given the similarity in salary savings between offshoring and labor importation, and the fact that having the work done on-site is far more productive, it is much more cost-effective from a CEO’s point of view to hire H-1Bs than to offshore the work

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Labels: H-1B visa, Immigration, Recreation, Society and Culture, Travel, United States, US, Visa

Linked8 provides databases of business, career, and education which can be searcheable. Linked8 tapped into additional sectors of H1-B and GC databases available for search. The site claims they have more than 9000 recruiters and hiring companies that have signed-up at Linked8.

Currently only year 2006 and 2007 data is available for search at these sites - H1-B & GreenCard.

If I am on H1-B and is looking for a job then here are numerous possibilities of using this search information from linked8 -

- Search by state and know all the employers who are sponsoring H1-Bs
- Search by employer and see the trending of their recruitments
- Get Job title information
- Get salary information
- For Job seekers the links helps search for similar jobs in the area or Jobs available at employer

Similarly Greencard data helps if the employer is sponsoring GCs.

For recruiters this is gold as they can ping these employers and match H1-B candidates to the jobs. For employers this gives a good info of what salaries are being offered by the industry for the job positions.

Labels: GreenCard, H-1B visa, Immigration, Job Search