H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2015 Bill, S. 2266

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Originally Posted by Jonty Rhodes

This unfairness angers me. As I said, I am not against people taking advantage of this. I am against the lack of stringent criteria in this category. Unfortunately, being a physician I would never qualify for EB1C even if I want to.

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This was exactly my point. The EB1C abuse needs to be stopped.
- Stopping L1/EB1C abuse is the biggest benefit of this bill.
- The employers will be forced to start PERM in the first year which again is a good thing.
- The employees can demand to see the immigration paperwork in a short span of time, which is again a good thing
- H1B will be given to more deserving candidates, which again is a good thing.

IMO this bill can be a life changer for many EB2I candidates if it ever becomes a reality.

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Originally Posted by Jonty Rhodes

Mesan, I will admit that I haven't read the entire bill so far. So, I am not fully aware of the impact on H1Bs by this bill if it becomes a law. I also haven't given it a much thought and I would admit that. The reason for that is because being a physician and working for a not-for-profit organization/hosital, my successive H1Bs have fallen under cap-exemption so I never had to face lottery issue for H1B so far. My ignorance on this issue stems from this fact that I have always had no problem with H1B renewals so far.

My biggest concern is L1-EB1C as my comment mentions. In last 2 years, I have seen 14 people that I know who all are engineers of different kinds getting their GC through EB1C. Most of them came here in 2011-2012. GCs were filed after a year and wallah, within 6 months they had GCs in their hands. None of these 14 people studied here. They were all working in the same city in India for the same company.

There is another engineer with them who is still waiting for his GC. He came here as student in 2007 and did his Masters in US. He started working for the same company in 2009 but since he hasn't been sent back to India, they filed his GC in 2011 under EB2 and obviously he is still waiting. All other 14 people, earn less than this guy and also are junior to him in terms of position. But they all have their GCs and this one doesn't.

This unfairness angers me. As I said, I am not against people taking advantage of this. I am against the lack of stringent criteria in this category. Unfortunately, being a physician I would never qualify for EB1C even if I want to.

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I agree Jhonty we need EB1C reform.. But that should not be like total revamp of current H1B clauses, making need of Perm to EB1C category is good but not the other parts in the bill is my feeling..

Initially when i was working for different client , there were contracting people( through Indian Big company) reporting to me who got GC in EB1C in 3 months.. Even though he is junior to me his title is different in his company... It made me feel sad.. Yes given a chance i would have done it and be Citizen by now :).. I feel people who applied in EB1C applied it legally as per current rules.. That is the current system defined that category .. Yes changing that would be definitely good ...

But when i think of this ... I feel like i m bothered by EB1C just because EB2 is not getting its spill over ... If not none of us would have cared about it... i feel this whole GC process to be revamped... Like UK Hsmp or Canadian PR.. Where they open doors for people working legally can file and get it in 5 years, it doesn't need these categories...

As today we feel EB1C ... tomorrow ROW people can increase and burn away the visas and we might complain about it... The lesson i learned is rather than looking at the people who got GC look at people waiting in EB3 and feel happy ..

This change in mindset brought better happiness and made me decide on many critical things in last 3 years( few good advice's from folks like Q, Spec,Nishant soggadu , Kanmani ..bck then) ... Waiting was normal and suddenly again this Visagate happened ...

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Originally Posted by Spectator

I admit I haven't had time to read the proposal sufficiently to understand all the implications (only 3-4 times!).

My initial impression is it's a mixed bag.

I can understand some of the reservations expressed, yet it also has much to commend it.

I think the idea of prioritizing who gets the limited H1B numbers is a good one, particularly the idea of those on higher wage levels having a higher priority.

There's also a nice section mandating that past, present or future employees have the right to their non / immigration paperwork within 21 days of making a request to the employer for it (Section 122).

The requirement that employers have to provide proof of paying previous H1B workers is also a welcome step.

It's probably academic though, since it has little change of passage IMO. Maybe it will be attached to another Bill, if it comes up for a vote.


On a completely different note, it's very disappointing to see that USCIS have said that, for AOS applicants, the Final Action Dates will govern the ability to file an I-485 in December. That's an effective retrogression of 2 years from the 01JUL09 that is in effect for November. http://www.uscis.gov/visabulletininfo

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Spec,
I am sure that the bill will be mixed one but has many more positives compared to the minor negatives.

On a side note, do you have any idea when the FY2014 detailed statistics will be produced. I want to put down the EB1C usage so that people on the forum are aware of the misuse by that category and the amount of suffering that EB2 suffers at the hands of EB1C. Below are the details for the previous years.

FY2010
EB1A -- 4,309 - 25.17%
EB1B -- 3,990 - 23.31%
EB1C -- 8,818 - 51.52%
Total - 17,117

FY2011
EB1A -- 2,131 - 23.67%
EB1B -- 2,602 - 23.12%
EB1C -- 5,968 - 53.21%
Total - 10,665

FY2012
EB1A -- 3,569 - 21.91%
EB1B -- 3,394 - 20.84%
EB1C -- 9,323 - 57.25%
Total - 16,286

FY2013
EB1A -- 4,064 - 25.04%
EB1B -- 3,117 - 19.20%
EB1C -- 9,044 - 55.75%
Total - 16,225

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Originally Posted by iatiam

Mesan,

I am very curious to know where those numbers come from.

Iatiam

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Iatiam,

I guess you were asking for a reference to the numbers and not the definition of the ratio :D

Since you never really got the reference, I will provide it here.
http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/20...a-Sponsor.aspx

Check the company name and the salaries. At the top of the list you will see Infosys, TCS, Wipro and you would know what kind of jobs they provide. So you can get approximate ratio.

I would also encourage you to look at their salaries. You can see their average salaries being much lesser than Google, Cisco, Oracle, IBM, Intel, etc. That also gives you an idea about how much would those companies be paying to the EB1C applicants who would be working on L1 visas. These companies are trying to take all the visas possible (H1, L1) and also take away GCs in EB1C category.

I know many people have reservations against Sen. Grassley and I was one of them. But this bill is a lot different and is based on common sense and it would be great if it sees the light.

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Originally Posted by Jagan01

Spec,

On a side note, do you have any idea when the FY2014 detailed statistics will be produced.

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Jagan,

I have no idea.

I have posted already my frustration that, well over a year after FY2014 ended, DHS has still not published the 2014 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics.

I'm starting to wonder whether it will ever be published.

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Originally Posted by mechanical13

Clearly, the intent of congress was not to fund another countries research capabilities! As such, the provisions that Grassley has introduced are actually fixing this issue and prioritizing those with advanced degrees from US instititutions over all others. Critics to this provision are probably unaware that the US is the only country in the world that educates students for free, and has no provision for them to continue on and contribute to the economy..

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Mech,
wanted to get the info on which institutions are offering the students free education, so I can be prepared when my kids grow up and are ready to go to college. All inputs I get from reading articles, seeing friends and their kids going to college is that college education is getting costlier every year, and lot of kids are returning with a huge loan. For most of the Asians, settled here for long more than 15 years they already built some reserves to help fund kids college education but for others its still a nightmare if both parents are not working. Just my thoughts and hence would love to understand and get info what institutions are offering free (if not 100%, any percent reduction would be welcome I guess) college education.

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Originally Posted by Jagan01

This was exactly my point. The EB1C abuse needs to be stopped.
- Stopping L1/EB1C abuse is the biggest benefit of this bill.
- The employers will be forced to start PERM in the first year which again is a good thing.
- The employees can demand to see the immigration paperwork in a short span of time, which is again a good thing
- H1B will be given to more deserving candidates, which again is a good thing.

IMO this bill can be a life changer for many EB2I candidates if it ever becomes a reality.

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I guess every bill will have its pros and cons. And abuse, I would say everyone is playing it right from their perspective within the law. And also agree with Mesan on the thinking that most of the big companies do not want too many H1 B employees and prefer contractors as that take a lot of overheads and benefits that they don't need to offer. Right or wrong, I don't know. As I only see it from a simple economic view that everyone is in the field to make money and increase or maintain profits and will do what can be done to achieve that.

That was one of the reason for first shifting the whole manufacturing and industries outside of US and then software and IT and call centers and anything else which is common knowledge.

In the event Mr Grassley bill gets vote and becomes a law, it is not going to reduce outsourcing, it will only increase it. When forced with such environment, entire work will move offshore with a few key personal here who are citizens or greencard holder. Offer any american a site co-ordination job with enough dollars attached to it, they will accept it. Many of these companies bring people on L1 and H1 so that they can bill clients at US rate. If these visas dry out, they will switch to a different operation model. I worked for an outsourcing firm in India where they had 30 engineers in India whereas they had just one or two onsite managers. The net effect of this bill is americans will lose out further. Do Grassley care about americans, no he just cares about his anti-immigrant agenda !

Adding to the discussion where people consider PHDs and school matters:
Google Doesn’t Really Care Anymore Where You Went To School

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Yet after tracking the performance of their employees against where they went to school and how well they did they, Google execs realized that top performance at a top school is not related to great performance at Google — at all.
"It's one of the flaws in how we assess people," Bock said. "We assume that if you went to Harvard, Stanford or MIT that you are smart. We assume that if you got good grades you will do well at work... There is no relationship between where you went to school and how you did five, 10, 15 years into your career. So, we stopped looking at it."

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Originally Posted by Jagan01

Check the company name and the salaries. At the top of the list you will see Infosys, TCS, Wipro and you would know what kind of jobs they provide. So you can get approximate ratio.

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I do not know about Infosys and Wipro but TCS is one of the worst paymaster in US. One of my college mate used to work in TCS in MN for Amex client for 61,000 an year, and was supposed to go to another project in Phoenix after 4 years on H1. Some how TCS realized the minimum wages for his qualifications should be more than 61000 in Phoenix and tried to transfer him from H1 to L1B. But eventually he had to return to Bangalore because his L1 transfer was rejected.

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Originally Posted by Jagan01

Iatiam,

I guess you were asking for a reference to the numbers and not the definition of the ratio :D

Since you never really got the reference, I will provide it here.
http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/20...a-Sponsor.aspx

Check the company name and the salaries. At the top of the list you will see Infosys, TCS, Wipro and you would know what kind of jobs they provide. So you can get approximate ratio.

I would also encourage you to look at their salaries. You can see their average salaries being much lesser than Google, Cisco, Oracle, IBM, Intel, etc. That also gives you an idea about how much would those companies be paying to the EB1C applicants who would be working on L1 visas. These companies are trying to take all the visas possible (H1, L1) and also take away GCs in EB1C category.

I know many people have reservations against Sen. Grassley and I was one of them. But this bill is a lot different and is based on common sense and it would be great if it sees the light.

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Jagan,
Thanks. I am surprised to find that such a large number of H1Bs are contractors. Not sure how authentic the data is, though. I work in the energy industry and I rarely, if ever, come across some one who is in H1B contract. I could be a different scenario for IT/Tech which dominate the H1B sphere.

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Originally Posted by bluelabel

I do not know about Infosys and Wipro but TCS is one of the worst paymaster in US. One of my college mate used to work in TCS in MN for Amex client for 61,000 an year, and was supposed to go to another project in Phoenix after 4 years on H1. Some how TCS realized the minimum wages for his qualifications should be more than 61000 in Phoenix and tried to transfer him from H1 to L1B. But eventually he had to return to Bangalore because his L1 transfer was rejected.

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And that is exactly the reason why I support wage requirements for L1/EB1C. These MNCs take the L1 route as they do not need to worry about the wage requirements. There have been EB1C cases that have been rejected and then subsequently appealed in AAO. AAO has been made to reverse the decision because of lack of wage requirement step in either L1 or EB1C. Once the wage requirements come in then many of the L1 and subsequently EB1C cases will get rejected and they would not even think of appealing in AAO as they do not stand a chance once the wage requirement is a law.

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Originally Posted by iatiam

Jagan,
Thanks. I am surprised to find that such a large number of H1Bs are contractors. Not sure how authentic the data is, though. I work in the energy industry and I rarely, if ever, come across some one who is in H1B contract. I could be a different scenario for IT/Tech which dominate the H1B sphere.

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That data is accurate and I have followed it for the GC numbers from the individual companies.

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Originally Posted by Jagan01

That data is accurate and I have followed it for the GC numbers from the individual companies.

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Jagan - that dataset is bloated at best. One person typically has multiple LCAs. I work in IT/management consulting and travel to client locations. At any given time, i have 5-8 active LCAs. ( Thanks to semeio decision, lil less than that many amendments)