Companies Specializing in Shipping American Jobs Offshore Seeking More H-1B Visas than Law Allows

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by IEEE-USA:

Companies specializing in sending American jobs offshore have already applied for more H-1B visas than will be available in 2013.

Data compiled by the Department of Labor Office of Foreign Labor Certification shows that the top 10 companies applying for H-1B visas in the first three months of FY 2013 are all offshore outsourcing companies. http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/pdf/h_1b_temp_visa.pdf

These 10 organizations collectively had 112,739 positions – representing 73.4 percent more than the base annual H-1B cap of 65,000 – certified to be filled by an H-1B worker. Many of these work visas are issued to scientists and engineers.

Moreover, 64.1 percent of the 175,806 certified H-1B applications from just 1 October to 31 December 2012 went to these 10 companies. And there are many more than 10 outsourcers. DOL will begin applying these applications to the FY 2014 visa cap Monday.

"Starting next week, proponents of an H-1B visa increase will bemoan the fact that the H-1B cap is already used up," IEEE-USA President Marc Apter said. "But it was outsourcing companies – businesses who use the visas to take American jobs – who used nearly two-thirds of them."

Current Labor Department statistics are consistent with Computerworld magazine's recent analysis of FY 2012 government data, which found that, "The largest single users of H-1B visas are offshore outsourcers ..."

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236732/The_data_shows_Top_H_1B_users_are_offshore_outsourcers

Some members of Congress are considering increasing the H-1B cap significantly beyond 65,000 as part of comprehensive immigration reform. Computerworld concluded that, "... the major beneficiaries of the proposed increase in the cap would be pure offshore outsourcing firms."

IEEE-USA supports legislation providing employment-based green cards for skilled immigrants earning advanced STEM degrees from U.S. colleges and universities, and their dependents. Green cards, unlike H-1B visas, allow immigrants to start their own companies, many of which will create jobs in the United States.

"The H-1B program shouldn't be used to facilitate the transfer of high-paying jobs to other countries," Apter said. "If Congress wants a full U.S. economic recovery, it shouldn't even be thinking about expanding it."

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SOURCE IEEE-USA