Thought Garage

Business Week ran a cover page story in the magazine this week on High Tech Sweat shops. This is a no brainer to most Software Techies; how the H1B program works, how Consulting outfits work and how they place H1B consultants in jobs that often involve at least 3 layers of sub-contracts. It won’t be an exaggeration to say there is no Placement firm in the US that has not dealt with these so called ‘sweat shop’s. Small (often under 50 employee) High Tech Consulting firms that predominantly hire ONLY H1B consultants. There is a well known  criticism that these firms are unduly replacing American workers instead of complimenting the American work force. This year it is entirely different. Recession is one for sure. But also a variety of reasons. Some of these outfits are under investigation for a variety of fraud ranging from collecting fees for H1B sponsorship to ‘running the payroll’. Not sure how many of them and not sure the extent of fraud. But number of H1B petitions file...

There has been no update since the 9th April 2009 news release by USCIS indicating whether H1B cap limits have been reached for FY 2010 yet or not. As per 9th April notification, about 42000 applications have been received. So it appears, the cap limits haven’t been reached yet, even after almost 19 days in April. Last two years (in 2007(H1B2008) and 2008(H1B 2009)) quota has been reached on day 1 itself. This is quite expected. As I said earlier, I would be surprised even if the cap limits are reached. If any firm is planning to apply, they would have applied on day 1 itself knowing what happened in the last two years. If they hadn’t applied yet, most probably they won’t. May be once Economy picks up or knowing the news that this year it won’t be a lottery, some firms may still look at H1B option. But otherwise, I guess, this is it.

This is the most trickiest and yet the most popular question asked on this blog and in direct emails to me, Will the H1B rush we have witnessed in 2007 and 2008 repeat this year in 2009 as well? The official H1B year 2010 starts from October 1st of 2009. USCIS will accept petitions starting from 1st of April, 2009. Please visit USCIS website for accurate and timely information. Now the answer to that question, without any doubt, a Big NO. That's right. As far as I understand, its a BIG NO. Its my gut feeling and I could be totally wrong. It is very unlikely that USCIS will run in to lottery this year. I will be surprised if even the cap is reached this year. Enough Engineers in US and still searching. Well there are many reasons for it. First of all, there are more than enough IT consultants and Engineers already in US still searching for a job as I write this post. So, I don’t think there is any reason for companies to look to hire somebody on H1B from a different country ...