Quote Originally Posted by pontooner View Post
This isn't just some new Obama idea either. They have been issuing theses visas for a while now.

The current law limits to 65,000 (but can be raised) the number of aliens who may be issued a visa or otherwise provided H-1B status. The numerical limitation was temporarily raised to 195,000 in FY2001, FY2002 and FY2003 due to the high demand that coincided with the dot-com bubble.

I still can not find any solid info for the 165,000 visas being issued by Obama that kyfanatic used.
H1-B visa's really took off before the Y2K issues......Seems there were very few foreign workers in this field before then......there were some....maybe 5 percent of the workforce.

Now, though, some areas have 30% or more.

Some of it has to do with work ethic....some has to do with "perceived" expertise......and quite frankly some H1-B visa recipients are simply better.

The following are observations from working in IT for the past 25 years:

* MOST H1-B holders I've worked with come from Russia or India. Mostly India recently, but around 2000, they were mostly Russian, with the ocassional Korean.

* Most OVERWORK......meaning they have no issue working 70-80 hrs a week. This is seen as a positive.......they work their BUTTS off, but due to language barriers, competence levels, etc, etc, they rarely accomplish more working 80 hrs versus someone working 40 hrs........BUT the perceptions of HARD WORKING is there.

* Most cannot speak the language worth a CRAP......some can, most cannot. THIS leads to serious technical barriers, and often rework. I've been involved in more than 1 project that had to be reassigned from Offshore to ONSHORE to be done correctly........I'm mixing offshore and H1-B a little here, but the idea is the same.......H1-B workers just cost 4x as much as offshore, and they are pretty much paid EXACTLY what onshore workers are paid.

* Most are TASK oriented. Give them a task, and they will whip it out........probably EXACTLY as specified..........give them 20 tasks that need to integrate with other tasks, and FORGET IT....I think this is mostly language barrier related. AGAIN perception of "Hard worker" keeps them employed.

* Here is the KICKER..........H1-B visa workers start off as OFFSHORE workers. Once they know the systems, etc, etc, then they "migrate" from Offshore to H1-B. Now instead of worker A making 25% of what I do, they now MAKE WHAT I DO, and come here, SPONSORED, and take the job of a US Citizen......SCREW sending the jobs overseas.

* 1 out of every 3-4 H1-B workers are worth a CRAP...........I've worked with them in Development, PMO, IT Tech Support, and Database Administration..........1 out of every 20 are the BEST in the field.......and I MEAN SIMPLY ROCKING......I've only met or worked with a very few who are better than most of my peers.

I'm done for now......

Later,

Geo