{"id":22732,"date":"2020-04-02T10:20:19","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T14:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=22732"},"modified":"2020-04-02T14:02:45","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T18:02:45","slug":"h1b-visa-foreign-worker-lottery-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/04\/02\/h1b-visa-foreign-worker-lottery-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyzing FY2021\u2019s H-1B Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the first time in the program\u2019s history, employers registered for the H-1B annual lottery online. Because there is always more interest than there are visas, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) distributes them through a random lottery with results announced on March 31 and April 1. USCIS released information detailing the characteristics of the prospective H-1B workers that employers petitioned for. The document<\/a> contains some key points that bear discussion on this controversial guestworker program<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

81% of\napplications were for Indian or Chinese nationals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The H-1B program allows employers to bring in guestworkers to temporarily hold \u201cspecialty occupations.\u201d In practice, this essentially means any job that requires a bachelor\u2019s degree<\/a>. The H-1B is a nonimmigrant visa, meaning that H-1B visa holders cannot apply for citizenship. However, the Immigration Act of 1990<\/a> changed this condition by permitting H-1B workers to establish \u201cdual intent,\u201d meaning they can eventually apply for a green card. This decision caused a tsunami of green card applications from H-1B workers who wanted to become American citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This change caused an enormous backlog of\nIndian and Chinese nationals who make up most of the H-1B visa holders. Our\nimmigration laws carry per-country caps on employer-based visas, ensuring that\na disproportionate share of our visas don\u2019t go to nationals from any single\ncountry. If it were not for these caps, nearly every employment-based visa\nwould go to nationals of India and China, only because applications from those\ncountries dwarf those from others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This trend continued in FY 2021\u2019s requests.\nThe overwhelming majority – nearly 81 percent – of prospective workers will\ncome from either India or China. About two-thirds (67.7 percent) of all\nprospective workers are Indian alone. Most of these new workers will pursue the\ndual intent option, ensuring that they contribute to the growing visa backlog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employers\napplied for 275,000 unique registrations <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. law caps the number of H-1B visas at 85,000 per year, with 20,000 of these reserved for foreigners with advanced degrees. That the FY2021 season saw 275,000 unique registrations is a testament to the program\u2019s popularity among employers who want cheap foreign labor<\/a> that is completely dependent upon their employer for legal status. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only\n46% of applicants have advanced degrees <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

H-1B expansion advocates hail the program as one that brings in thousands of exceptionally gifted foreign workers who possess skills that are not readily available in this country. There are certainly extraordinarily intelligent and skilled individuals working in the U.S. on H-1B visas. But the majority are really exceedingly average people – no different than a normal American college graduate, except they cost employers significantly less<\/a> to hire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fewer than half of FY 2021\u2019s H-1B petitions\nhave advanced degrees from American universities. This seems wrong for a visa\nsupposedly reserved for \u201cspecialty\u201d talent. Reflecting on decades of\ninformation, USCIS should adjust the definition of \u201cspecialty occupations\u201d to\nonly those that can only be filled by workers who have advanced degrees. This\nadjustment would significantly lessen the number of H-1B visas issued but would\nalso make it easier for deserving applicants who truly possess special skills\nto earn a visa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The H-1B visa is a raw deal for American college graduates. They cannot hope to compete with foreign workers who employers can hire temporarily for a far lower salary. Reducing the number of H-1B visas, or at least tightening the loose requirements for what constitutes a specialty occupation, seems like a smart step for the Trump administration to pursue as they try to fulfill their \u201cHire American, Buy American<\/a>\u201d promise.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time in the program\u2019s history, employers registered for the H-1B annual lottery online. Because there is always more interest than there are visas, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) distributes them through a random lottery with results announced on March 31 and April 1. USCIS released information detailing the characteristics of the<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":13311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[11],"tags":[1658,1524,986,831],"yst_prominent_words":[8186,8181,8182,8189,4014,8184,2358,2025,1932,4199,4273,1934,6407,8183,8180,8188,8187,8185,4274,1937],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22733,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22732\/revisions\/22733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22732"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}