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So what's going
on in the tumultuous H-1B world?
Written by Jennifer Wipf
for
Immigration Newsman*
Dateline 01/25/00
As if visa processing isn't uncertain enough in
its own right, the big H-1B blunder by the INS has left many foreign workers
in an even more precarious situation. While law makers and corporate decision
makers continue to duke it out over whether and how to limit these ever-sought-
after specialty worker visas, many are left to ponder their potential
futures as H-1B holders. And all this at a time when the United States
is experiencing a significant shortage of technology workers. Go figure.
H-1B visas enable notably skilled
foreign workers--often those in high tech jobs--to come to the U.S. to
fill specific positions. The cap for the last fiscal year was 115,000,
and was hit in August of 1999. The current demand for high-techies has
companies fighting for a higher cap as human resource execs bite their
nails trying to do their jobs. One pending bill even requests an additional
65,000 visas for those with advanced degrees, and many still call that
a conservative number. To add a little more spice to the mix, with the
presidential election coming up in November, this has naturally become
a major political debate with high stakes for those involved.
Things started to go awry
last year when a possible combination of software and human error glitches
at the Immigration and Naturalization Service resulted in the agency's
granting of 10,000 to 20,000 too many H-1B visas for the period ending
September 30th.
Initially, employees panicked
that some 10,000 to 20,000 employees could conceivably be told to pack
it up and head home. It won't happen, promises the INS, which has thus
far made some vague references to a "compromise with Congress" and has
contracted Big Five accounting firm KPMG Peat Marwick to conduct an audit
of the H-1B count FY 1999, with recommendations for improvements.
In a letter to Attorney
General Reno, Senator Abraham pointed out that the INS' own instructions
on how to count visas need to be carefully scrutinized as a possibly major
contributing factor to the errors. Apparently, there may be a mix up between
tabulations of approvals and actual conferral of visas.
Also cited is "evidence from INS'
own instruction sheets and briefings that it has been inflating the visa
count," which means we really don't know for sure how high or low the
miscount actually is. Leave it to the good old INS to leave us back at
square one, scratching our heads.
The agency also recently announced
that last June's statement on the number of H-1B visas filed in fiscal
1998 by the top 20 U.S. companies, was filled with inaccuracies. Interestingly
enough, one of those companies was KPMG.
According to INS spokeswoman
Eyleen Schmidt, the INS is holding off on any and all decisions until
the count is in. KPMG is expected to deliver later this month, but a detailed
report on causes and recommendations won't be in until Late winter or
early spring.
There are two things that
definitely won't happen says the INS: The agency will not revoke any already
approved H-1B visa petitions (phew), nor will it assign the surplus to
previous years when a quota was unmet (shucks).
But the agency is still
considering a deduction of the surplus from this year's quota, and that
has many critics up in arms. Citing the political heat involved, however,
many suspect that Congress may not want to cut into the cap when the GOP
has, in fact, been eyeing an increase with growing enthusiasm.
These reporting problems
and uncertainties are not being taken lightly by employers who make major
hiring and organizational decisions based on the numbers they thought
they could count on.
But the INS has promised
to clean up its act, and quickly.
We shall see.
*This article originally appeared in Immigration Newsman, the print newspaper
for all immigrants in America.
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