H-1B visa use by U.S. firms holds steady in '09

[OhioChick]

Indian IT firms cut back, but some U.S. companies used more than in '08

December 14, 2009 06:02 AM ET

Computerworld - U.S. companies were still getting H-1B visa petitions even as they cut jobs, according to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) that shows who received the visas in the 2009 fiscal year.

A couple of trends are immediately apparent.

First, some of the big India IT services cut back on their H-1B use during the softening job market. For instance, Infosys Technologies Ltd. received only 440 visas in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2008 and ended on Sept. 30, 2009. In the prior fiscal year, it received more than 10 times that number, or 4,559. And while Wipro Ltd. led the FY09 list with 1,964 visas, that number is still down more than 25% from the 2,678 visas it got the year before.

Secondly, U.S. firms, despite cutbacks in their own staffs and an overall decline in IT employment, continued to hire people using H-1B visas. That list includes Microsoft, Intel and IBM's India operation.

The U.S. can issue 85,000 visas in the current 2010 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1; only 2,500 remain available. In the last several years, the pool of available visas has been exhausted within days of the April 1 filing period.

Even so, the economic slowdown has not dampened efforts by tech firms to get H-1B visa limits raised, if not removed all together. Congress is expected to take up comprehensive immigration reform next year, a move likely to focus renewed attention on H-1B visa restrictions.

More: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9142163/H_1B_visa_use_by_U.S._firms_holds_steady_in_09

Greedy fucks...laying off while continuing to hire H-1B's

[ihavenobias]

1. Your last line sums it up. n/t

[ChromeFoundry]

2. and of course...

there are NO U.S. workers qualified to fill ANY of these positions.

If our government actually had an operational budget, these should be the first companies investigated on visa abuse and fraudulent hiring practices.


...cue the globalist cheerleaders ... in.. 3... 2... 1...

:popcorn:

[burning rain]

3. & look for the WSJ to condemn critics of H-1B's as a lot of racists & xenophobes,...

while at the same time opposing civil rights laws on its self-same editorial page! If there was a Nobel prize for phonyism, the WSJ would get it regularly.