← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Centinel
Thread ID: 9983 | Posts: 5 | Started: 2003-09-23
2003-09-23 01:53 | User Profile
From The Register, available online at: [url]http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/32966.html[/url]
US set to make massive H1-B visa cuts
By Ashlee Vance in Chicago Posted: 23/09/2003 at 00:48 GMT
The US is prepared to slash the number of H-1B visas issued annually, as a sour economy has the government concerned about hiring foreign tech worker help.
Unless some lobbying groups step up their pitch to sway Congress before Oct. 1, the annual limit on H1-B visas will plummet to 65,000. This is a massive drop from the 195,000 visas that have been available in recent years. The slumping tech economy is one of the main reasons for the cut, as legislators hope companies will hire unemployed US workers before looking for foreign talent.
During the tech boom, Congress raised the number of H1-B visas to answer calls from vendors and industry trade groups. They argued that the US needed outside smarts to remain competitive in technology. Foreign workers were seen as one of the major answers to a labor crisis. The H1-B visa limit rose from 65,000 to 115,000 for two years and then to 195,000 since 2001.
New data, however, shows that the number of H1-B visas used up by tech workers has been declining for some time. Tech workers accounted for 105,692 H1-Bs in 2001 but only 27,199 in 2002, The Mercury News reports.
With tech companies tending to send more and more work offshore, it's no surprise that many US workers react harshly against the H1-B visas totals. Some experts, however, warn that it's a mistake to turn foreign workers away. They argue that the US will be missing out on some top talent should the economy improve.
2003-09-23 03:37 | User Profile
I cast a jaundiced eye toward numbers ZOG tosses our way that would at first seem to make some of the grumblings of the sheeple drop a bit in volume.
Since so much work is being outsourced at an increasing pace, there probably is less need for H1b's.
What's going on with the L1 visas? They've probably increased, so all the prattle about H1b's decreasing is crap, window dressing anyway.
:taz:
2003-09-23 03:43 | User Profile
It's not a cut, but a return to the regular level that existed until just a few years ago, before it was raised during the dot-com boom.
2003-09-23 04:08 | User Profile
Interesting, Jorge support the maintenance of the inflated level, yet apparently he will not move to keep it in place. Perhaps sees the writing on the wall, or perhaps it has been 'his' plan all along to try to court corporate power will giving in to the real power of conservative constituents. Hard to tell.
2003-09-23 10:02 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Unless some lobbying groups step up their pitch to sway Congress before Oct. 1, the annual limit on H1-B visas will plummet to 65,000. This is a massive drop from the 195,000 visas that have been available in recent years.[/QUOTE]
Well, well...
Freedom bus riders full of ignorant illegals all ready to take advantage of our stupidity (not to mention media coverage) in one thread, and in the next thread I look in, the government is cutting the H-1b Visa's, meaning the amount of [I]trained[/I] immigrants is being lowered. Anyone else see a pattern here? If we have to accept immigrants, I prefer them to have a skill, thanks, not just show up with a pregnant wife and 6 kids and sponge off the system.
Ausonius