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H-1B workers stuck in home countries
H-1B paperwork
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TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. She said her agency is stepping up checks on the H-1B visa program. Those are the visas that let highly skilled foreign professionals work in the U.S. when no qualified American can be found.
Professionals from India -- often tech workers -- have generally taken a big chunk of those visas. But a lot of them are now finding it harder to get them renewed. So they're stuck in their home country. Raymond Thibodeaux has more from New Delhi.
Raymond Thibodeaux: About two dozen people meet for lunch at a cafe in an upscale neighborhood of New Delhi. They have a lot in common: they're Indians who work in the U.S. on H-1B visas. They have advanced degrees from American universities in specialized fields like science, medicine and engineering. And they've all been in limbo here for months, just waiting.
DHIRAJ JOSHI: We weren't even warned about this.
That's Dhiraj Joshi, who's spent years in the U.S. designing image recognition software for Eastman Kodak. He came back to India to get married. He thought it would be a two or three week trip. But U.S. authorities subjected his H-1B visa renewal to additional -- and time-consuming -- security checks because he works with a technology that they say could pose a threat to American national security if put in the wrong hands.
JOSHI: They asked me for my research details, like my present, past and future research plans. They gave me a paper, a red slip, saying it would take four to six weeks, but I had no idea that it would take so long.
So long, in his case, has been four months. His friend, Himani Sharma, came back to visit family. She's a post-doctoral researcher who's normally based outside of Boston. She's been waiting for about three months, long enough for her American employer to put her on unpaid leave until her visa issue is cleared up.
HIMANI SHARMA: This is a mental trauma for our family. We have mortgages to pay. We have responsibilities to take care of. If I lose my job, another house is going on foreclosure. I know that. Who's responsible for that?
Falling behind on mortgages or car loan payments is one thing, but many of these H-1B visa holders are also falling behind on their work projects to the frustration their U.S. bosses and colleagues.
The Indians understand the need for rigorous checks for national security purposes, but some complain the delays are a deliberate tool to deter foreign workers during the current economic downturn. David Donahue, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for visa services, denies that.
DAVID DONAHUE: A certain small percentage -- about 3 percent worldwide -- of our cases do require extra administrative checks. We do not like it when it takes this long for those to come through.
Donahue says wait times are increasing because of rising global demand for U.S. visas, especially in places like India, where applications have shot up 65 percent over the last two years.
Back at the cafe, many of the H-1B holders are growing impatient. Some are rethinking their options, and looking for jobs right here in India.
In New Delhi, I'm Raymond Thibodeaux for Marketplace.
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Dear All,
I applied for F1. I am waiting for more than 4 months. I understand the need for a security check. It will be very good if they deny the Visa, instead of keeping it pending for months.
I am a chemical engineer. I did MAsters in US with Us tax payers money( Fully funded).. I want to do a Phd and further my research and contribute meaningfully to US which has given me an excellent platform. Visa delays are only discouraging me from coming back. I am looking for career options in India.
I am in US since 2010. Got PhD in US did postdoc at Harvard. Now working for a government lab. My research is just about finding cures to common diseases like cancer and bacterial infections and in no way falls within those grey areas about which the immigration smarties are concerned. I recently got stuck in Canada because of this ugly administrative processing issue and i dont even know anyone here. The govt lab i work for did multiple background checks before hiring me. Then why do they need additional check now? My work is terribly getting affected and i have nothing to do in Canada and i dont know how long i will have to wait. These US VISA officers who consider themselves GOD are eating up the roots of American economy like termites. They grant thousands of greencards via lottery to people who find it hard to earn a proper living while they are awfully skeptical about the educated people who are building their nation's foundation.
Well in short, as i write this, i am terribly frustrated going through all this visa issue and after spending 10 years here..i am finally making up my mind to go back to India and do research from there. During my stay here, i have enjoyed the lifestyle but India is growing fast and similar lifestyle can be achieved there too. I am sure if the US government doesn't look into this matter seriously, many people will do the same sooner or later.
I have also read many comments above and to those american people who feel happy about this that their jobs will get free when people start going back...you guys are seriously mistaken. Because most US jobs require US citizenship and there are only handful of jobs that are open for immigrants. In my lab itself, there are multiple vacancies requiring US citizenship due to the nature of work, however they have been vacant since months because they are unable to find US citizens qualified for those positions. That should answer every single doubt.
A very interesting discussion, I must say!
I am a Kenyan citizen who did my bachelors in Electrical Engineering who is stuck in Kenya due to the famous administrative processing.
It's true that there are many more qualified Americans out there who can do my job, but the question I ask myself is why has my American boss picked me? Why has he waited almost 3 months for me?
My only answer is because he likes my work. He has hired many Americans before, but he likes my dedication and focus. I have left my family, friends and home country to get an education and do my very best. The difference between me and some some of his previous employees is that I get his work done and don't just leave when he needs me the most.
The other question I have, is how come they approve your H1B petition in the US and then realize that more processing needs to be done when you get to your home country. Might as well just deny your application in the first place. There really seems to be something wrong with the communication between the consulate and the US immigration department.
There is no classification among H1B, 1) People who completed PHD in US and are continuing their research 2) Students who completed MS and are working in high research areas 3) High skilled people who have worked for more than 5 years in their area and want to work in US 4) People with not much experience and not even completed masters either in US or anywhere else. These people need to be flagged and not allowed. Talk of Indians displacing Americans is BS, they have no problem exporting arms and their products to other countries, when mass producing industries put people out of jobs because o f products pushed down the throat at the threat of gun point for centuries did not matter....
I hate to say this but its not ALL the indians that are abusing the H1b program, its mainly the south indian consulting companies that have sprung up in the recent past, working illegally and completely ruining the whole H1b visa program. If I had my way I would ban all tamilians from coming to the US, they are the real dirt spreading community in the world~~
why does someone have to through such trauma because of an H1-B visa? America is not heaven and certainly not the only country that can give you an opportunity to make a decent living. There are countries like Australia and Canada that highly demand for skilled foreign workers, so why stick your mind to only the United States when you can go to Australia and even spend less for your living costs than when you're in the U.S. No visa hassels for Australia or Canada. Am a foreign college student at Stanford University, I am in my junior year (Third year) majoring in Computer Science and engineering with hopes of working for facebook one day but am not guaranteed that my dreams will come true because am a foreigner. So I keep looking to other countries besides the U.S for any opportunity after school
H1B would hardly solve the employment problem in US, furthermore a significant proportion of the Masters and PhD students are international (not to mention that some PhD programs have predominantly international students). My heart goes to American people who now have to compete with the best of the best in the world (and the smartest 1% in the world is more people than the whole country, not to mention the inadequacy of the domestic K-12 system to deal with the new competition), but lets not forget that U.S. started and exported actively the globalization agenda.
It is really sad that people with great careers in the US, when they go to the home country for visa stamping, get struck over there for months. Unfortunately, Legal immigration is everyone’s step child. Half of the people don’t know the difference between legal and illegal immigrants. We LEGAL immigrants receive good salaries; pay a lot of taxes, social security and Medicare as well without being sure that we will be able to use these services decades later. We buy homes, cars in this country supporting the US economy. As a result of some archaic rules USCIS wants us to go outside the country and then get our passports stamped with our renewed H1B visas while that can be easily done inside the country. I can see most of the people posting here are ignorant of the fact that except for a few H1B abusers, most of us are highly paid, we are not only in IT but we work in R&D, core engineering, education and medical fields as well. I agree, there are some who abuse the system but don’t paint everyone with the same brush. I work in the oil and gas industry and I get paid darn well and I pay my share of taxes as well. Don’t behave like xenophobes asking all immigrants to leave just because you lost your job. Whatever said and done - America is a land of immigrants. - Non IT Engineer and a proud Legal Immigrant
It is really sad that people with great careers in the US, when they go to the home country for visa stamping, get struck over there for months. Unfortunately, Legal immigration is everyone’s step child. Half of the people don’t know the difference between legal and illegal immigrants. We LEGAL immigrants receive good salaries; pay a lot of taxes, social security and Medicare as well without being sure that we will be able to use these services decades later. We buy homes, cars in this country supporting the US economy. As a result of some archaic rules USCIS wants us to go outside the country and then get our passports stamped with our renewed H1B visas while that can be easily done inside the country. I can see most of the people posting here are ignorant of the fact that except for a few H1B abusers, most of us are highly paid, we are not only in IT but we work in R&D, core engineering, education and medical fields as well. I agree, there are some who abuse the system but don’t paint everyone with the same brush. I work in the oil and gas industry and I get paid darn well and I pay my share of taxes as well. Don’t behave like xenophobes asking all immigrants to leave just because you lost your job. Whatever said and done - America is a land of immigrants. - Non IT Engineer and a proud Legal Immigrant
Why is there so much hype about H1b holders stealling jobs from americans? Every year only 65000 H1b visas are alloted which is a fraction of the unemployed people in US! What about manufacturing jobs? If there is more goods manufactured here than getting it shipped from other countries can you imagine the number of jobs being created in US? Even a printer cartridge is made outside US which just baffles me? Any answers?
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