Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
argued against giving out any H-1B visas at all [51]. Congress decided to drop the H-1B
quota to 65,000 for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2003, and it initially set a quota of
65,000 for the following fiscal year. However, the 65,000 H-1B visas approved for 2004-
2005 were filled in a single day; representatives of universities and technology companies
said the quota was set too low [52]. Bill Gates said, “Anyone who's got the education
and the experience, they're not out there unemployed” [53]. Congress responded in
May 2005 by allowing an exemption for an additional 20,000 foreigners with advanced
degrees (master's or higher).
The annual quota of 65,000 H-1B visas and the exemption for 20,000 foreign-
ers with advanced degrees remain in effect. During the deep economic recession of
2008-2009, the unemployment rate rose sharply, and the US Citizenship and Immigra-
tion Service had a difficult time filling the quota mandated by Congress. With about a
month to go in the 2008-2009 fiscal year, the USCIS had received only 45,000 petitions
for the regular H-1B visa and about 20,000 petitions for the advanced degree exemp-
tion [54].
The other important work visa is called the L-1. American companies use L-1 visas
to move workers from overseas facilities to the United States for up to seven years. For
example, Intel employees in Bangalore, India, could be transferred to Hillsboro, Oregon,
if they held an L-1 visa. Employees brought in to the United States under an L-1 visa do
not need to be paid the prevailing wage. That saves employers money.
Critics of L-1 visas claim lower-paid foreign workers are replacing higher-paid
American workers within the walls of high-tech facilities located in the United States.
The US Congress has put no limit on the number of L-1 visas that may be issued in any
given year, but the number of foreigners working in the United States under L-1 visas
is much smaller than the number holding H-1B visas. In 2006 about 50,000 foreigners
were employed in the United States under the L-1 visa program [55].
The debate over the number of visas to grant foreign workers seeking employment in the
United States should not mask another trend: the increasing capabilities of IT companies
within developing nations, particularly China and India.
In 2004 IBM agreed to sell its PC division to Chinese computer manufacturer
Lenovo for $1.75 billion, making Lenovo the number three manufacturer of PCs in
the world [56]. A few months later, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao visited India to en-
courage new collaborations between Chinese hardware companies and Indian software
companies [57]. Today China is the world's number one producer of computer hardware
(Figure 10.9).
India's IT outsourcing industry is growing rapidly; Indian companies now em-
ploy more than a million people and have annual sales exceeding $17 billion. About 70
percent of these sales are in software engineering work, such as designing, program-
ming, and maintaining computer programs. The other 30 percent of these sales are in
IT-related services, such as call centers, medical transcription, and X-ray interpreta-
tion [58].
