More H-2B visas

[David Schwartz]

Do you mean H-1B visas?

This is really sad, because there’s already so much fraud around this that it’s silly. Congress knows about it, and they have refused to do anything to address it.

There are tons of Indian recruiting firms that set up shop specifically to funnel their friends here under H-1B visas. I’m contacted by them regularly. The only thing they want to know is your “rate and availability”, then they almost always tell me that the client isn’t willing to pay more than $22 or $23 per hour, or a salary above $55k-$60k. This is for supposedly “senior” roles!

I think they’re simply trying to document the “fact” that they’re unable to hire US Citizens for these jobs in order to justify somebody’s H-1B visa.

The major impetus behind this effort has come from the biggest software employers in the country: Microsoft, HP, Apple, Oracle, IBM, etc. 

It costs them $50k to prosecute every one of these visas! That’s on top of salary and benefits. 

See, this is what happens when taxes are so low that there’s no leverage to implement tax benefits. They’d rather spend $50k to hire a foreigner and bring them over here than spend a plugged nickel on retraining unemployed US Citizens. 

H-1B job holders also have a “hidden benefit” in that it’s a guaranteed job until their green card issues, which takes between five and ten years right now. 

To reward taxpayers for this, we’re being shoved into contract roles with no benefits so they can cut costs quickly if their financials take a hit. No job security, no retirement, no health benefits.

But those foreigners coming here under H-1B visas … they’re making out like bandits! 

Has anybody noticed how few employers are paying relocation expenses these days? Wouldn’t you love to be treated the same was new college grads from India and Pakistan?

At least Congress could reverse Section 1706 of the Tax Code that eliminates the “safe harbor” provision for contractors in the tech industry. This is what forces most companies to hire through job shops rather than hire 1099 contractors directly. Lots of industries are exploding by accessing labor directly as 1099 contractors, except the tech industry is still saddled with this stupid and counter-productive restriction that has never done what it was believed it would.

-David "The Tool Wiz" Schwartz



> On Dec 18, 2015, at 12:52 PM, Keith Smith <techlists at phpcoderusa.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> I just read this about our U.S.Government spending bill :
> 
> Tucked into the 2,009-page spending bill is a provision that would quadruple the number of H-2B visas allowed annually from 66,000 to 264,000.
> 
> I wonder how may of the tech companies in the Chandler Price Corridor will be taking advantage of this while being subsidised by the City of Chandler.
> 
> I expect most of those companies use Linux in one form or another.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Keith Smith
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