U.S. may increase H-1B visas available to Indians
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The U.S. government is considering a substantial increase in the number of H-1B visas available to Indian professionals, Robert Blake, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Delhi reportedly told a meeting hosted by the Delhi-based Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India
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Bill Gates and Steven A. Ballmer of Microsoft, along with other high-tech executives, are lobbying for more visas for temporary foreign workers and permanent immigrants.
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Congress is letting employers hire 20,000 more foreign high-tech workers under a special visa program after businesses reached the annual ceiling on the first day of the government's fiscal year.
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Immigrants applying to become citizens or permanent residents of the United States may have to pay higher application fees, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
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Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called on the U.S. Congress toÂ raise the cap on skilled-worker visas, saying the county's economic future was at stake.
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TheÂ U.S. congressman who chairs a House Judiciary subcommittee says Congress could pass an immigration reform bill by July, including lifting the limit on how many high-tech engineers can come to the U.S. for jobs.
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The US Congress has passed a reforms Bill which exempts 20,000 foreign students, who pass out of universities in the country with Masters or Doctorate degrees, from the annual cap on 65,000 H-1B visas given to foreigners seeking work in America.
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(InfoWorld) - Three major technology trade groups urged the U.S. Senate on Friday to resurrect a wide-ranging immigration reform bill that would expand a controversial skilled-worker visa program. The Senate late Thursday failed to gain enough votes to close debate on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act and bring the bill to a floor vote. The bill, which critics said provided amnesty to illegal aliens living in the U.S., also would have expanded exemptions to the cap on high-skilled H-1B visa programs, a move supported by many tech vendors. [ Analysis:Â Immigration reform's high-tech impactÂ ] The bill would increase the annual H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000 and exempt foreign students who have earned a master's degree or higher from a U.S. university from the annual cap. Right now, 20,000 students are exempted from the cap. U.S. tech vendors don't want to lose those workers, especially because many of them have their education supported by U.S. tax dollars at public universities, said David LeDuc, director of public policy for the SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association). "We don't want to export our seed corn," he said. "We don't want [those students] leaving and working for our competitors." The bill also sets preferences based on merit, instead of family connections, for clearing multiyear backlogs for employment green cards, another provision supported by many tech groups. Tech vendors want to keep high-skilled workers in the U.S. under the long-term green card program but often face delays, LeDuc said. The SIIA, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) and the ITIÂ (Information Technology Industry Council) all urged the Senate to try again to pass the legislation. Negotiations on the bill will continue, and ITI is optimistic the bill will still move forward, said James Ratchford, communications director there. The fate of the bill should become clearer by early next week, he said. LeDuc agreed, saying SIIA is confident the bill can still pass. Many large tech vendors have in recent years urged Congress to expand the H-1B program. In March, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called for more H-1B visas during a visit to Washington, D.C. Gates said then he had "deep anxiety" about the ability of the U.S. to compete globally. SIIA's position is similar to Microsoft's. "Companies need to be able to hire the best and brightest workers regardless of where they're born," LeDuc said. The H-1B program isn't generating controversy during the congressional debate on the bill. Instead, provisions to allow illegal aliens to become permanent citizens have raised major concerns among many Republicans. But U.S.-based tech worker groups such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA have opposed a higher H-1B cap, arguing that companies use the program to hire foreign workers for less money than unemployed U.S. workers would receive.
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(InfoWorld) - It appears that the STRIVE (Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy) Act of 2007 isn't quite dead after all. On Thursday, the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees Border Security, and International Law convened and on its first day took written statements from witnesses on the bill. The comprehensive immigration bill that caused such a furor earlier this year, mainly over the issue of whether it was offering amnesty to illegal immigrants, also addressed the H-1B visa cap. The cap, now set at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 reserved for foreign workers who have a graduate degree from a U.S. institution, would be raised to 115,000 for 2008 with a stipulation that it would go up an additional 20 percent each year that the quota was met, with a final cap of 180,000 visas issued. At the hearing, STRIVE Act cosponsor Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona did not specifically bring up the issue of H-1B, but he did say that the STRIVE Act "addresses the failures and problems with past worker programs." Countering Flake's premise, Julie Kirchner, the government relations director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform said, "These provisions are a serious threat to high-tech workers in the U.S., including legal immigrants who have patiently waited their turn to take part in the American dream." In total, there were a dozen witnesses submitting written statements, but the others did not address the issue of the H-1B visa cap.
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Microsoft is expanding its experimental Windows XP Starter Edition program to India, the company disclosed on Wednesday. It&#39;s the second such announcement from Microsoft this week.
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It may now be the turn of Indian companies to offshore outside India their IT services requirements.
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NEW DELHI The chief executives of Microsoft and Intel are visiting India this week, underscoring the country&#39;s importance as a source of skilled software workers and a growing local market.
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US-India trade, which has seen barriers fall dramatically in recent years, will get an additional boost once a US program fostering high-tech exports goes into effect this year, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said.
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The Washington Post on Thursday examined India&#39;s growing &quot;medical tourist industry,&quot; which provides lower-cost surgical and other procedures to foreign patients.
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(InfoWorld) - That explosive H-1B YouTube video offering advice on how to hire foreign workers instead of Americans has gotten the attention of U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who called it evidence of abuse of the visa program. Both men want a federal investigation and are seeking answers from the law firm that posted the original video on YouTube. In a letter to U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Grassley and Smith characterized the video as "exposing the blatant disregard for American workers and deliberate attempt to bring in cheaper foreign workers through the H-1B program." They also want the labor secretary to review the video and investigate "the law firm's unethical procedures and advice to clients." In the video, a person identified as Lawrence Lebowitz, an attorney at the firm Cohen & Grigsby PC in Pittsburgh, Penn., explains how U.S. companies can avoid hiring U.S. workers. "Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," said Lebowitz in the video. "And that, in a sense, sounds funny, but it's what we are trying to do here." Grassley and Smith also wrote Cohen & Grigsby, noting that "your firm's video advises employers how to hire only foreign labor, while making it nearly impossible for a qualified American worker to get the job.... While many companies insist that they are not participating in fraud, many are finding loopholes around government rules and regulations in order to bring in cheaper foreign workers. These loopholes lead to abuse that ultimately displace qualified Americans. The abuse is evident thanks to a video produced by your firm...." They also noted that the video "advises potential employers that they can fulfill" Labor Department hiring requirements "by advertising the position in places where they will not find the most qualified applicants. Your firm asserts that an employer can advertise in regional publications with limited circulation, while internally listing the job for a foreign worker. We would like you to please explain how this practice does not constitute outright discrimination based on nationality and why your firm so blatantly promotes this type of behavior." The law firm had taped a seminar on immigration law it held in May and then posted the video on YouTube, possibly for training purposes. The firm has not responded to repeated requests for comment this week. The two letters, dated today, were initially posted online at the University of California, Davis by Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the school and one of the longest-standing critics of the H-1B program. Matloff, in an e-mail said, "This 'YouTube-Gate' incident should be an eye opener for people in the press and in Congress who have been taking the industry lobbyists at face value all these years." The tape was brought to light by the Programmers Guild, a Summit, N.J.-based professional association after guild president Kim Berry said he was alerted to it by activists. He made a copy of an excerpt, added in some subtitles to annotate the tape, mixed in some music for dramatic effect, and posted the new version on YouTube. "My hope is that this proof on video will open some eyes to this sham," said Berry.
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Goolag understaffed Google has added to calls for immigration authorities to allow more skilled foreign labour into the US, as the Mountain View firm struggles to keep pace with its own expansion.â¦
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By Mowad, Michelle  The local biotechnology and technology industries, highly dependent on very highly skilled workers, are waiting to see if their foreign job applicants have been awarded work visas.  U.S.