Date:23/10/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/10/23/stories/2005102302590300.htm

Back US Senators push for 50 pc hike in H-1B visas

Pratap Ravindran

Pune , Oct. 22

US Senators have put their weight behind a proposal to increase the number of H-1B visas for highly skilled guest workers from 65,000 to 95,000 - roughly a 50 per cent hike.

That is the good news - at least, as far as Indian technology workers are concerned. And then again, the US Senate Judiciary Committee, while approving the hike in the number of H-1B visas, has tagged on a requirement that the H-1B application fees levied on US employers be bumped up by $500 to avoid any major aggravation of the federal budget deficit.

Thus, the Indian tech diaspora in the US will be taking care, at least in part, of the massive deficit the Bush Administration has run up, exporting `democracy to the Middle East.'

However, the proposal will remain just that unless the full Senate - and a conference with the House of Representatives - approves it.

Such an approval cannot be taken for granted as the House is not in favour of any change in the cap on H-1B visas.

The subject will be debated by the Senate Budget Committee expected to meet on October 26.

While the leaders of the US technology industry have welcomed the proposal as one that will enhance their ability to compete even while providing fresh funds for training American workers, the latter are not very happy about it.

They hold that the system, even in its current form, deprives qualified Americans of jobs by allowing companies to hire foreign workers at low wages.

It may be recalled in this context that the Programmers Guild, an advocacy group for US technology workers, had recently published a report saying that it had found fresh evidence that some companies were using loopholes in the law to hire H-1B workers at less-than-median wages, thereby jeopardising the interests of American workers.

The study, based on a scrutiny of documents called Labor Condition Applications in which employers are required to declare the minimum wage they plan to pay H-1B workers, had further noted that less-than-ethical employers were getting around the laws by categorising experienced H-1B workers as novices, by using job titles associated with low salary levels and by assorted other means, all equally dubious.