It was goign to come and finally new bill to reform H1b Visa program was introduced to US Congress that is aimed to prevent companies to commit H1B Fraud. Senator Durbin and Grassley introduced the H-1B Visa Reform bill today [ The Durbin-Grassley bill ]
Highlights of New H1B Reform Bill
The Durbin-Grassley bill is not aimed to reduce the existing number of H1B Visa Quota, but it address the following issues
- Require all employers who want to hire an H-1B guest-worker to first make a good-faith attempt to recruit a qualified American worker. Employers would be prohibited from using H-1B visa holders to displace qualified American workers.
- Prohibit the blatantly discriminatory practice of “H-1B only” ads and prohibit employers from hiring additional H-1B and L-1 guest-workers if more than 50% of their employees are H-1B and L-1 visa holders.
- Permit DOL to initiate investigations without a complaint and without the Labor Secretary’s personal authorization;
- Authorize DOL to review H-1B applications for fraud;
- Allow DOL to conduct random audits of any company that uses the H-1B program;
- Require DOL to conduct annual audits of companies who employ large numbers of H-1B workers.
- The Durbin-Grassley bill would institute a number of reforms to the L-1 visa program, including establishing for the first time a process to investigate, audit and penalize L-1 visa abuses.
Similar Bill was introduced into Congress in previous years and it was not passed into law. Companies involved in doing above listed activities have to be worried. But, how to find such companies? Do you have any thoughts?
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{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi All,
Saw so many feedbacks about Universal Software Corporation on this web page, so thought of confirming with you guys.
I had received a call from them regarding the VISA filing process and job oppurtunity. Can anyone let me know if its really a genuine comany to work with .
Thx
Dev
I hope this bill is passed. The companies should be hiring foreign born workers with a US degree only instead of bringing in people who have no US degree. These people are forced to work long hours and also overtime without pay and after their visa expires most are sent back home. H1-B is a good scheme for these companies to get cheap foreign labor vs getting americans or foreign nationals with a US degree. I say stop bringing in foreign workers and let them start hiring people in the US who are both citizens, or foreign born. Congress must stop Infosys, Wipro and TCS from violating these rules. I see that some of the people who come in do not work for the petitioning company but are sent to do projects for other companies. Stop the abuse.
No need to worry the 50% bill will never pass. History is witness there was never a law or politician who worked in the favour of common people in any country or any time in the Human history. If it is going to benefit the common citizens of US then it will not pass. No need to worry folks.
This is a good law.
It would stop illegal and fraud companies to operate.
Cheers…
This bill is totally made without thinking.
Just for example, take Google. Most of their staff are foreign workers. Do you think Google is hiring foreign workers for cheap? No way. They are hiring them because of the talent they got. And Google is helping US economy a big way.
We can say the same for microsoft, cicso, apple or any other big tech company. If they pass the bill, the graph of the economy is going does for sure.
Perhaps some of the big companies may have trouble finding local talent. That is not what this bill is designed to change. H1 is being abused to bring in cheap labor. Period. TCS, Infosys should not even be eligible for these visas. That would solve most of the problem, since US companies get around the law by going through these body shops.
I agree with you mike. That H1 is being abused to bring in cheap labor.
They should pass the bill and should exempt the “higher education degree from US” applications. Because I know what the difference is between those who earned their higher degree from US and those who are imported as cheap labor. There should be some way to higher the right people for the right job without abusing H1 for cheap labor.
As I said before, restricting H1 for no reason is not going to help. There should be some rules for distinguishing between these two category.
Yes TCS abuses the L1 Visa programs as they are more convenient to obtain than H1-B visa’s. L1-B and L1-A visa’s are comapany to company transfer visa’s for specialized technical and manegerial skills respectivly. But TCS brings their Indian employee’s on these visa’s to work for American companies as consultant’s. Over 90% of the employee’s work on jobs which does not match on what was stated in the Visa application. TCS brings people on L1-A (managerial) visa’s and positions the associates to work on technical assignments. Even the people who come on L1-B visa do not possess specialized technical skills as stated in Visa papers, the skillset of the Indian associate who is bought to America can be easily found among prospective American job seekers. But still why TCS follows this practice….the answer is simple.
1) Indian employees work on low salary.
2) Indian employees can be made to work late hours or over the weekend without overtime pay.
3) Indian employee’s can be immediatly sent back to India if they cannot be placed with any American companies…without paying any severance.
exTCS, you are right on with all of your posts. This is what I see too.
One more thing to add, bringing people on L1 visa’s have an added advantage for TCS over H1 visa’s. Unlike H1 visa’s the employee on L1 visa cannot switch companies, in this way the employees would not be able to switch to a better company even they wish to, tying them to an indirect bond. TCS can then make the employee agree to all they want to. Most employees would not raise their concerns with TCS for the fear of being sent back to India.
NOName,
Your comments dont make any sense to me. You are just talking for yourself. I know most of the Indian who complete their Masters here in the US join an Indian body/sweat shop who fake their resume with 5-10 years of experience (while they have just zero experience), bribe the Indian and chinese manager in companies here and get jobs. So there are fakes in all the categories. There should be regulations to prevent this kind of frauds from being happening. That would be a better solution rather than eliminating a Visa or a particular category of a Visa.
Stupidity at its best – government is granting amnesties to illegal immigrants and putting up barriers for legal employment for people with higher education…
NoName,
What you mean by higher education? Is is that hard to get admission for a masters degree here in the US? I can show you hundreds and hundreds of fools from AP,India who have done masters here. As long as they have enough money to sponsor their studies and even if they have scored very poor marks in GRE/Toefl, they can get into some schools here for their masters. If they are so brilliant why could not they get a full time job without the need of joining a Indian body shops and faking their resumes. So I would say doing masters (unless if they do it in top schools), does not make any difference. Most of the fake resumes are from those who graduated here.
A Very Good Bill, Needed long ago… This will prevent abuse… and keep a check on Greedy Consultants… And finally it will make American companies like IBM, CSC, EDS more competitive, Right now they all are having a tough time competing with Indian Companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro. Indian companies have almost 80-90% of there staff on H1-B / L-1 Visas denying thousands of jobs for qualified Americans. So if the bill is passed, it will do, what it is supposed to do, i.e. help American companies and not Indian Companies as it is doing in its current form. I hope it gets passed soon.
Punit… Nice name. May I know how you entered US? I m sure u were an immigrant once upon a time. Now after getting all u wanted , u are hating the immigrants. who knows u will also be back fired..ha ha ha.
Don’t day dream ok. These kind of statements are regular stunts in politics and this bill goes nowhere elso.
It doesn’t matter how someone got here, we are trying to affect how future people get here.
Great !!! It is a great news !!! I am so happy finally there is something to control the abuse.
looks like this will limit the program drastically, because if any qualified americans appply, an H-1B cannot be granted. it is peculiar that Congress and Obama are not focusing more on increasing the number of work visas and chances for permanent residency for highly educated people. there is very little if anything in the discussion of immigration reform these days for people on H-1Bs or who want H-1Bs to get green cards easily. but then again, the numbers of illegal immigrants are enormous. think of the votes you can get if you legalize them all…
If bills surely help countries like india and china to improve.
More work will go back to these countries in a long run because at this rate there will hardly be any resource in the usa to work on large projects.
learn English please. This bill is great, India and China should be concerned.
“Good for all of us”?! Are you totally nuts?!!! This is the exact opposite of good for us!!! This bill is equivalent Homelands Security Act for H1B holders and employers!!! This stupid law introduces more government control over businesses that hire H1Bs, creates more difficulties to apply for it and allows DOL to act as cops! How many businesses won’t hire H1B people, due to this f&%@*ng policing???
Stupidity at its best – government is granting amnesties to illegal immigrants and putting up barriers for legal employment for people with higher education…
Who ever still think they will benefit from this bill, read the highlights of it on Durbin’s page and find one bullet that is beneficiary for H1B holders or employers – http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=271783. By the way this law will apply ALL H1B holders, so even if you got your H1B last year, DOL can knock your employers any time!
So, we all better pray that this won’t pass!
I totally agree…
There is no way this bill is making it through without MAJOR modifications.
The only premise I agree with is reviewing cases for fraud. That makes sense. Apart from that, it is pretty much ridiculous.
If this bill is passed, the consulting firms which bring people from India and other countries and place the employees as consultants with different US firms on contract can not function?? Sounds like that because companies would not be allowed to have more than 50% of their employees on H1..and many other statements in the bill suggests that. But auditing the genuine companies often is ridiculous.
Hey if it is genuine companies, like Microsoft, Oracle, Google, no fear about audit at all !
Yes, that is the idea. TCS, Infosys, etc, will not be able to bring cheap workers in to ship more work back to India. If they wish, they can hire Americans at American wages to do this.
This would only stop companies like TCS, Wipro and Infosys which abuse the visa program. Genuine companies like Microsoft, google and IBM bring genuine talent and have nothing to fear. This would only stop mediocre software professionals coming to US as cheap labor. This would act as a deterrent for companies like TCS America who have 90% of their employees from India on L1 and H1 visa’s……these sorts of abuses would be totally prevented. People who are qualified have nothing to fear and hopefully this law would help them to weed away false competition.
“Stupidity at its best – government is granting amnesties to illegal immigrants and putting up barriers for legal employment for people with higher education…”
I totally agree..!!
Hi HSB,
I am working for an Indian MNC at Delhi. I applied for H1B 2010 through Universal Software Corporation(www.universal-sw.com).They told me that they sent my petition on April 1st 2009.Could you please let me know whether this company is a genuine company or not.They did not update anything after April 2nd.Mine is Regular processing.If everything goes well when can I expect my receipt number.Thanks in Advance.
Hi HSB,
It will take time if its Regular case. Don’t worry. Just wait and believe in God.
Universal Software is a extremely Fraud company. They have taken all the money from one of my friends to process his H1 and it seems the petition was not approved from USCIS. The incidence is quite strange in terms of that guy’s eligibility. That guy has already several years of US work experience with multiple entries in US and various projects and other international exposures. Universal-SW claims they have done everything for the processing but in vain. While for those whose petitions got approved seems quite novice and not even IT related. Quite strange huh !!
I have also applied for H1B 2010 through Universal Software. I did some research on Universal before committing and they are genuine. No doubt about it.
Fortunately, my H1B was approved and I am now awaiting the stamping process to start. They said that it will start in Dec. Do you have any other updates?
I have also applied through Universal and am also waiting for the stamping date now. Please post an update whenever you get any update from Universal. Thanks.
The delay in approval and now the delay in stamping has started making me shifty. It is a relief to know about you guys.
Just a small concern. I got an offer for $58K from Universal but what they have mentioned in the appointment letter was less than the actual amount. What they told me was, that to save taxes thay have made such a break up? Do you also have this type of breakup? Just want to know….Thanks.
And more so, I came to know that they are now planning to send there candidates in the month of June or may be after that. Any updates regarding these dates…. Stamping and Flying to US. Also, which technology you are working on … FYI I am a .NET guy. Specifically C#. Any updates will be helpful. Thanks.
My situation is also exactly the same as yours. Package is same. Stamping is in Dec and flying somewhere in June or even later.
At the moment, I am not trying to think beyond stamping.
Can you give more details on what is your take home pay, is it bi-monthly or bi-weekly? What is your Visa status?
Can you give more details (Offer Letter 58k) and but your salary is less than that?
They have done some calculations on a seperate sheet. Attached at the end of the appointment letter. Seems to me that they have done the same in such a way that they can make more money.
Frankly speaking I am unable to understand the calculations they have done.
Where you guys are located in NCR or in Mumbai?
Just want to know, may be it can help all of us…
If you dont mind, then can you guys please share your gross package and take home as per the appointment letter?
Thanks
Hi All,
Saw so many feedbacks about Universal Software Corporation on this web page, so thought of confirming with you guys.
I had received a call from them regarding the VISA filing process and job oppurtunity. Can anyone let me know if its really a genuine comany to work with .
Thx
Dev
It is good for all of us.
good for me, bad for consulting firms.