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H-1Bs Are Simply Too Difficult to Get

The American economy is losing out on people who could launch whole new companies and product lines

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USCIS statistics show that 20% of H1Bs are fraudulent. 20% of the of the 85,000 H1Bs allowed into the country each and every year is 17,000 fraudulent cases. USCIS FDNS internal data show that close to 80% of these 85,000 visas are fraudulent. Now tell me that we need to increase the # of H1Bs.

Ken Thomas of IA 3:53PM January 03, 2012

The H-1b is the outsourcing visa, it does not create any jobs. Over 5 million jobs have been directly lost since 2000 because of the H-1b outsourcing visa.

Pat of CA 12:47PM December 30, 2011

Perhaps Feinblatt is not aware of the CityTime project that was brought to the taxpayers of NYC by his boss Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Perhaps Feinblatt is just a liar.

Let's assume that Feinblatt is not aware of the CityTime project. So lets provide him with an education. The CityTime project was estimated to cost the taxpayers of NYC $60 million. So far, it has cost the taxpayers over $700 million, all under the watchful eye of Bloomberg and his minion Feinblatt.

Why did the taxpayers have to pay over $600 million? The answer is that Bloomberg chose to issue a conflict of interests waiver for SAIC, and Bloomberg chose to hire an Indian H1B body shop called Techodyne, owned by Reddy and Padma Allen who are now fugitives who have escaped prosecution by returning to India with $90 million of NYC taxpayer money. http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-06-21/local/29704388_1_padma-allen-citytime-payroll-project-technodyne

This entire fraud was perpetrated during the Bloomberg administration, and Bloomberg continues to push his agenda onto the US that ruins the careers of US STEM workers with cheap entry level third world workers that replace US STEM workers.

The question is whether Feinblatt is not aware of the fraud or if he is a liar. Personally, I think the answer is obvious.

twins.fan of CT 4:12AM December 30, 2011

Hey Feinblatt,

Faisal Shahzad, the failed Times Square bomber, came here on an H-1B visa. Are you that greedy for cheap, foreign labor that you would sacrifice the safety of New Yorkers? You are a traitor. You would sell out the few jobs that remain in STEM fields for the benefit of the lobbyist organizations you mention in your "article".

P Henry of MA 9:02AM December 29, 2011

As a former trainer of H-1b and L-1 visa holders I find the program to be a complete fraud. The majority are not the best and brightest. It is a cheap labor program for the corporations that donate to congressional campaigns.

I, and 20+ American tech workers were informed by corp mgmt(Siemens ICN, Lake Mary, FL) that the employees were going to be laid off. But first, they said "we want you to train your replacements, then we'll have a severance for you when you leave."

About 20 days later in comes a team of TATA India employees. I had 3 trainees, none of which had a clue on how to use the DB product and integration tools we were using.

In the end, the goal was to move the work abroad, but they couldn't do it without gaining the knowledge first. That's where the H-1b visa comes in; import the foreign workers to learn from the Americans, then the knowledge can be moved abroad.

That's how the H-1b and L-1 visa programs work.

Michael Emmons of FL 8:28AM December 29, 2011

Pardon me as I'm only one of the US' "best and brightest" so must be too stupid to be of use, but wasn't 1990 AFTER 1981--like 9 years after assuming my subpar American education didn't steer me too far offbase?

And I also missed the math class where 65,000 = 85,000. I suppose if you're somehow talking about "for sufficiently large values of 65,000". 65,000 does not take into account the 20,000 MORE set aside for advanced degree holders.

And let's drill down to the single largest use of this visa: Indian technology. Please name some great examples of US-job creating entrepreneurs from this group. Currently, Inc.'s list of top 10 south Asian entrepreneurs at best names three Indians who came here on H-1b. And the topmost of them is an outsourcing/offshoring company providing FAR more jobs to India than here.

And why is it that all I ever seem to read is how companies are telling our politicians what's good. What do the 300,000,000+ citizens think???

john80224 of CO 1:57AM December 29, 2011

Fact check time: SunGard, according to the company's own website, was not founded by Cris Conde, but was formed in 1982 as a spin-off of a division of Sun Oil Company, and attributes its growth to a strategy of acquisitions ("more than 160 acquisitions since 1986"). SunGard's 2011 Media Book notes that Cris Conde joined SunGard through the acquisition of Devon Systems International, Inc. in 1987, was appointed President in 2000, and named CEO in 2002. Also, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the H-1B classification was created by Public Law 101-238 in 1989, 8 years after Conde’s graduation.

More at:

http://www.sungard.com/aboutsungard/history.aspx

http://www.sungard.com/~/media/corporate/aboutsungard/mediakit/mediabook.ashx

http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/AFM/HTML/AFM/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-13593/0-0-0-13614.html

theo dp of NY 7:59PM December 28, 2011

As "New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's chief policy adviser" you should know that the biggest fraud in the history of IT projects occurred in your city under the watch of your mayor.

One reason you were all caught by surprise is that most of the workers were H-1b workers, and were rightfully afraid to step forward since after all a corporation controlled their right to be here.

So the H-1b program is partially to blame for the biggest fraud in the history of IT projects. That said, I blame Bloomberg even more for supporting the incompetence, procurement, and audit process that lead to this.

Bloomberg represents the elite. Your policies represent corporate interests. It is people like you and your boss who are destroying the base of this nation, while enriching the top 1% (Bloomberg again).

Your support of the H-1b visa is just a continuation of this elitist policy. Perhaps Bloomberg should write a check to cover the fraud... but of course he won't do that. The citizens of NYC will be paying for that.

Have you no shame? I shouldn't even bother asking. We already know the answer to that question.

R. Lawson of FL 4:36PM December 28, 2011

Try again, Feinblatt:

The H-1B visa did not exist in 1981.

It was created by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1990.

Thanks for playing!

Steve Landess of TX 3:29PM December 28, 2011

I cannot believe that there are people that BELIEVE that the H1B visa programs brings in the "best and Brightest". Once upon a time, that may have been true; but today it's about CHEAP and Docile labor, to replace American workers (especially in the Information Technology field) and reduce salaries/rates. Don;t believe me --- Take a look at ANY financial institution's IT department (Citi, Wells Fargo, Chase, Capital One, etc). Still don't believe me ---- Look at any Telecom's IT department (Verizon, Dish, AT&T, etc).

Best and Brightest???? That's a STRETCH.

Jimmie Richardson of CO 2:10PM December 28, 2011

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