raysaikat
01-07 12:42 AM
I agree with you. It is important to know if the US data excluded international students or not. You can find the papers here:
http://www.soc.duke.edu/GlobalEngineering/papers.html
The relevant one seems to be the following:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=991327#PaperDownload
This one is probably more relevant:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1015843#PaperDownload
Basically go through all the papers to get the complete picture of his position.
http://www.soc.duke.edu/GlobalEngineering/papers.html
The relevant one seems to be the following:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=991327#PaperDownload
This one is probably more relevant:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1015843#PaperDownload
Basically go through all the papers to get the complete picture of his position.
wallpaper Movie Wallpapers » No Smoking
waitnwatch
09-05 08:06 PM
I remember that in the early nineties it was next to impossible to get a home loan in India. I think the only company which gave out home loans was HDFC and the interest rate was a whopping 16%. Property prices at that time conformed to what people could actually afford as the house had to be either paid in full or you had to take out a loan from your provident fund.
Fast forward to 2000 and beyond. After the Indian rupee became fully convertible and the banking regulations were relaxed every bank or finance company started to make loans. The upshot of that is that everyone could buy a house and car through taking out loans. This of course created this huge demand for new housing from the middle class which translated into a steep increase in land and property prices.
This may not exactly be a total bubble as loans are there to stay. What is happening though is that home construction is going on at a rapid pace and at some point Indian cities and their suburbs may be overbuilt. At that point you would be stuck with your house and not be able to sell as is happening in the US. Of course some markets will correct but I donot think Bombay, Bangalore or Hyderabad will.
I'm a a total layman regarding such issues and I am just trying to reason this through.
Is is sad. All these NRIs are going to learn a very valuable lesson. Speculation is not a good strategy for investing. A lot learned that in the past few months here in USA. In a year we will be seeing the full blown post bubble correction in India. If one can rent an apartment for 15,000 why would one buy it for 50 lakhs. The interest alone on 50 lakhs is 50,000 every month. It is like buy and rent it and loose money. Instead why don't they deposit in a bank and get 50,000 every month:confused:
Fast forward to 2000 and beyond. After the Indian rupee became fully convertible and the banking regulations were relaxed every bank or finance company started to make loans. The upshot of that is that everyone could buy a house and car through taking out loans. This of course created this huge demand for new housing from the middle class which translated into a steep increase in land and property prices.
This may not exactly be a total bubble as loans are there to stay. What is happening though is that home construction is going on at a rapid pace and at some point Indian cities and their suburbs may be overbuilt. At that point you would be stuck with your house and not be able to sell as is happening in the US. Of course some markets will correct but I donot think Bombay, Bangalore or Hyderabad will.
I'm a a total layman regarding such issues and I am just trying to reason this through.
Is is sad. All these NRIs are going to learn a very valuable lesson. Speculation is not a good strategy for investing. A lot learned that in the past few months here in USA. In a year we will be seeing the full blown post bubble correction in India. If one can rent an apartment for 15,000 why would one buy it for 50 lakhs. The interest alone on 50 lakhs is 50,000 every month. It is like buy and rent it and loose money. Instead why don't they deposit in a bank and get 50,000 every month:confused:
shreekhand
07-18 12:14 AM
Guys...all applications are pre-adjudicated irrespective of whether a PD is current according to the receipt date.
Once receipted they go on the shelf and are given for adjudication to an adjudicator as in a fairly FIFO manner.
Let's not confuse this with those who were pre-adjudicated and then placed on the shelf for lack of visa number availability. Most of the petitions approved in June were from this shelf.
As a rule they don't jump and take the "PD current" ones even if they are submitted late.
Again I also read this from a question posed to the "I-485 Production Line Supervisor" in an open house document posted by an organization.
Once receipted they go on the shelf and are given for adjudication to an adjudicator as in a fairly FIFO manner.
Let's not confuse this with those who were pre-adjudicated and then placed on the shelf for lack of visa number availability. Most of the petitions approved in June were from this shelf.
As a rule they don't jump and take the "PD current" ones even if they are submitted late.
Again I also read this from a question posed to the "I-485 Production Line Supervisor" in an open house document posted by an organization.
2011 Movie Wallpapers » No Smoking
Milind123
09-12 11:39 PM
Done
Changed the Equation
To Would be first time contributor,
Besides your other non-monetary contribution, IV needs your monetary contribution too.
People who havn't contributed, please take your first shot. Need just 2 people to contribute $100 each for now.
sam2006 and I will contribute $100 each. That makes $400 closer to the goal.
Changed the Equation
To Would be first time contributor,
Besides your other non-monetary contribution, IV needs your monetary contribution too.
People who havn't contributed, please take your first shot. Need just 2 people to contribute $100 each for now.
sam2006 and I will contribute $100 each. That makes $400 closer to the goal.
more...
mbartosik
03-26 04:34 PM
PD Dec 2002
45 day letter around July 2006
replied to 45 day letter within a couple of days
RIR EB3
Region NY
Currently on 7th year of H1B
45 day letter around July 2006
replied to 45 day letter within a couple of days
RIR EB3
Region NY
Currently on 7th year of H1B
shadowboxer
09-27 09:16 PM
You are only waiting for 7 years. Wait time is calculated from Priority date not the date you enter the country.
Don't talk like a lawyer to her. For all intents and purposes, wait time starts when somebody sets foot in this country with the intention of becoming a permanent resident someday.
Don't talk like a lawyer to her. For all intents and purposes, wait time starts when somebody sets foot in this country with the intention of becoming a permanent resident someday.
more...
ssss
08-08 02:31 PM
My I-140 is approved,
RD is 07/30 at TSC concurrently filed. Seems that TSC is working :)
RD is 07/30 at TSC concurrently filed. Seems that TSC is working :)
2010 Smoking Skull Live Wallpaper
willwin
07-11 11:13 AM
Yeah I am EB3 India June 2003 too. Not sure when our turn will come, IF at all the way things are crawling here. Sometimes I really feel there is no justice to some of the IV members on here. I wonder which is worse, the corruption in India or the bureaucracy in the USA. Atleast in India, if I would have bribed the official, I would have had the documents by now.
eb3_nepa!
People here think EB3 deserves to be waiting (in the given scenario and only EB2 move forward). After all we are not EB2!
2003? another 2-3 years easily. I am only 2005. So may be another 5 years for me. Well, what the heck
eb3_nepa!
People here think EB3 deserves to be waiting (in the given scenario and only EB2 move forward). After all we are not EB2!
2003? another 2-3 years easily. I am only 2005. So may be another 5 years for me. Well, what the heck
more...
glus
07-06 12:34 PM
This is too confusing, it looks like USCIS is going crazy.
Something is cooking and they try to cover their as.... before the legal action takes its stand....:-)), but it is too late for them..
Something is cooking and they try to cover their as.... before the legal action takes its stand....:-)), but it is too late for them..
hair WIZ KHALIFA SMOKING WALLPAPER
jeevarakkiannan
07-19 11:55 AM
Secure $50 Per Month Recurring Contribution
$50.00 USD for each month
Effective Date: Jul. 19, 2007 $50.00 USD
Thank you core team for your sacrifices.
$50.00 USD for each month
Effective Date: Jul. 19, 2007 $50.00 USD
Thank you core team for your sacrifices.
more...
funny
09-11 04:35 PM
Count me in too..
hot stop smoking wallpaper.
raysaikat
01-06 04:11 PM
I am not sure why people jump onto drawing conclusions so fast...look at the above post from a so called professor....he encountered a couple of a folks from some universities & concludes that those universities are just crappy....!! Many of my colleagues are from the professors' "oh-so-good" list of IITs/univs and they are no better!! (In fact, some of them suck so bad)!!
raysaikat - Do you really think any student from the above crappy-univs could not tell what is f(0.7) by looking at the graph?? Do you really think those univs (anna/osm...) are so bad? Now another question for you prof....how come are you working in a university that's giving admissions to such a bunch of crappy folks...!!?? Given this fact, can we also safely assume that the university you are teaching-in is a Crappy one, which could only attract the bottom pile from your above list of crappy-universities??
PS: Sorry for digressing from the main topic of the thread.
I do not particularly disagree with either points. AFAIK, there are many colleges under the Anna University (i.e., students from all colleges get the same degree); some of them might teach properly and students may learn something. But the point of illustration was that there got to be some serious problems with those degrees if a significant number of students are getting that degree without actually learning/knowing anything. I never made a statement that *every* Anna/Osmania Univ. student is bad. My statement is that I have witnessed a large number of singularly bad students with degrees from those Universities. Those students may well be at the bottom pile. The point is that even a bottom level student who get an engineering degree must know better than those students: otherwise they should not be given the degrees. There are not-so-good people in IITs (B.Tech) as well; I know a few personally. But even they are way better than the students I have encountered. Let me know if you have met some B.Tech (and not M.Tech) from IIT who cannot write a 'hello world' in C; I am very curious.
I also do not disagree with your second comment. But that clearly illustrates the point that Wadhwa stated; there is a severe shortage of jobs that *require* a Ph.D. It is plain impossible to get a faculty position in a reasonable school in CS/EE, in particular, in computer networking. There are just no jobs. Note that my track record is quite good: Ph.D. from a good school (although not in the top ten) with a good publication list (a reasonable number of papers; all in good journals/conferences like Transaction on Networking; JSAC; INFOCOM, etc.; most of them cited many times) and a post-doc from an Ivy league school. At present, other than Biomedical Engineering and related fields, faculty positions are very scarce. And hopefully you understand that you cannot "change fields" like a computer programmer since in academia you need to have a research record of 4-5 years in the new field before you can change to it. I wanted to be in academia and struck this trade-off of accepting a position in a not-so-good school.
raysaikat - Do you really think any student from the above crappy-univs could not tell what is f(0.7) by looking at the graph?? Do you really think those univs (anna/osm...) are so bad? Now another question for you prof....how come are you working in a university that's giving admissions to such a bunch of crappy folks...!!?? Given this fact, can we also safely assume that the university you are teaching-in is a Crappy one, which could only attract the bottom pile from your above list of crappy-universities??
PS: Sorry for digressing from the main topic of the thread.
I do not particularly disagree with either points. AFAIK, there are many colleges under the Anna University (i.e., students from all colleges get the same degree); some of them might teach properly and students may learn something. But the point of illustration was that there got to be some serious problems with those degrees if a significant number of students are getting that degree without actually learning/knowing anything. I never made a statement that *every* Anna/Osmania Univ. student is bad. My statement is that I have witnessed a large number of singularly bad students with degrees from those Universities. Those students may well be at the bottom pile. The point is that even a bottom level student who get an engineering degree must know better than those students: otherwise they should not be given the degrees. There are not-so-good people in IITs (B.Tech) as well; I know a few personally. But even they are way better than the students I have encountered. Let me know if you have met some B.Tech (and not M.Tech) from IIT who cannot write a 'hello world' in C; I am very curious.
I also do not disagree with your second comment. But that clearly illustrates the point that Wadhwa stated; there is a severe shortage of jobs that *require* a Ph.D. It is plain impossible to get a faculty position in a reasonable school in CS/EE, in particular, in computer networking. There are just no jobs. Note that my track record is quite good: Ph.D. from a good school (although not in the top ten) with a good publication list (a reasonable number of papers; all in good journals/conferences like Transaction on Networking; JSAC; INFOCOM, etc.; most of them cited many times) and a post-doc from an Ivy league school. At present, other than Biomedical Engineering and related fields, faculty positions are very scarce. And hopefully you understand that you cannot "change fields" like a computer programmer since in academia you need to have a research record of 4-5 years in the new field before you can change to it. I wanted to be in academia and struck this trade-off of accepting a position in a not-so-good school.
more...
house No smoking
hiralal
05-29 12:05 AM
if your loan is denied while on EAD ..count yourself as lucky !!!
my advice ..be careful before you take a plunge when on EAD or on temporary visa (H1).
-----------------
MONDAY, MAY 25, 2009
OTHER VOICES
The Housing Hurricane Will Howl Again
By MIKE MORGAN | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR
This is only a lull in the housing hurricane.
WE'RE OUT OF THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE, but here comes the back half of the storm. A lot of people think that we've seen the worst of the housing crisis. They're talking about green shoots and glimmers of hope, when they should be back in the storm shelter, preparing for a flood of inventory that will overwhelm the markets and produce another round of falling prices
For the past few months there has been a semi-moratorium on foreclosures. Most institutions with delinquent mortgages didn't foreclose. The signs that blanket many neighborhoods have been posted by a fraction of the lenders. Now the rest of the banks are rushing to get their properties on the market.
[ov]
Christoph Hitz for Barron's
We're still supporting misguided programs that only add to inventory woes. They encourage builders to put up more homes and penalize anyone else trying to sell a home.
As a Florida real-estate broker who works with bank asset managers to dispose of foreclosed properties, I get a good view of this market. From December 2008 through mid-March 2009, the number of asset managers calling to discuss REO (real estate owned) properties on their client banks' books dropped by more than 80% from the level at which it previously had been running. In the past two months, however, asset managers have been busy, with most interested in how many properties we could handle at once.
Law firms for banks are once again lining up to file foreclosures and to process evictions. The asset managers we work with have warned us to expect a flood of properties, beginning in early June. This will hit as the number of potential buyers continues to dwindle. Builders, traditional sellers and investors who entered too early are already loaded with REO properties.
ALL OF THE OBAMA administration's attempts to revive, resuscitate and shock the housing markets into recovery have failed. Potential buyers can't purchase homes when they are losing their jobs, regardless of how attractive the credits and mortgages are. The price of homes will continue to fall until the properties are affordable for potential buyers.
If an investor could purchase a home and rent it out for close to breakeven, we might be getting close to a bottom. But we are nowhere close to that level in most critical markets. Until it is approached, prices will continue to fall. In fact, the negative cash flow now evident, along with the flood of properties coming into the inventory pool, warn of lower prices.
There's no light at the end of the tunnel yet. We're still supporting builders through misguided programs that are only adding to the inventory woes. California decided to offer a $10,000 credit to buyers of new homes, on top of the $8,000 federal credit. But California made the $10,000 available only for new homes purchased directly from builders. That shows the power of the builders' lobby, but it only adds to California's housing-industry problem. It encourages builders to construct dwellings we don't need, and it penalizes anyone else trying to sell a home.
Housing inventory soon will flood a market in which more than 500,000 homes are being built each year, even though the annual sales pace for new homes is closer to 300,000. We must also deal with a system clogged with impossible short sales, a surge of second and vacation homes being dumped, and third-wave flippers realizing that they entered the market too soon.
FOR THE BANKS, the back half of the hurricane will destroy balance sheets, unless the Obama administration comes up with another plan to mythically mark these assets on the books. Or we might see some chimerical plan to write down mortgage payments, or move toxic mortgages into a dark pool, or create some new illusion that glosses over the problem.
Our experience with banks' selling REOs is they realize about 50%-75% of what they initially think they will get. Moreover, their expenses to bring these properties to market and manage them are growing. Court systems bogged down with foreclosures are raising fees so that they can hire additional staff. More and more homeowners being evicted are stripping homes to the bone, removing appliances, fixtures, carpet, cabinets, air handlers, motorized garage-door openers and anything else that they can carry off or sell.
Unemployment presents a two-pronged problem. If homeowners lose their jobs, they have difficulty meeting mortgage payments. And a high jobless rate forces more people to put their homes on the market.
During the housing bubble, many second homes were purchased with the mythical equity from primary residences. These second homes are coming onto the market at an alarming rate, as many middle- and upper-class sellers need to raise cash. In some very exclusive private communities in Florida, where home prices are in the seven figures, more than 50% of the homes are on the market. (For more on the vacation-home market, see Cover Story.)
Unfortunately, there are no signs of recovery, despite the hype and the twisting of numbers in many media reports. The end of the unofficial moratorium on foreclosures, combined with rising unemployment, signals that the back half of this housing hurricane is only just beginning.
my advice ..be careful before you take a plunge when on EAD or on temporary visa (H1).
-----------------
MONDAY, MAY 25, 2009
OTHER VOICES
The Housing Hurricane Will Howl Again
By MIKE MORGAN | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR
This is only a lull in the housing hurricane.
WE'RE OUT OF THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE, but here comes the back half of the storm. A lot of people think that we've seen the worst of the housing crisis. They're talking about green shoots and glimmers of hope, when they should be back in the storm shelter, preparing for a flood of inventory that will overwhelm the markets and produce another round of falling prices
For the past few months there has been a semi-moratorium on foreclosures. Most institutions with delinquent mortgages didn't foreclose. The signs that blanket many neighborhoods have been posted by a fraction of the lenders. Now the rest of the banks are rushing to get their properties on the market.
[ov]
Christoph Hitz for Barron's
We're still supporting misguided programs that only add to inventory woes. They encourage builders to put up more homes and penalize anyone else trying to sell a home.
As a Florida real-estate broker who works with bank asset managers to dispose of foreclosed properties, I get a good view of this market. From December 2008 through mid-March 2009, the number of asset managers calling to discuss REO (real estate owned) properties on their client banks' books dropped by more than 80% from the level at which it previously had been running. In the past two months, however, asset managers have been busy, with most interested in how many properties we could handle at once.
Law firms for banks are once again lining up to file foreclosures and to process evictions. The asset managers we work with have warned us to expect a flood of properties, beginning in early June. This will hit as the number of potential buyers continues to dwindle. Builders, traditional sellers and investors who entered too early are already loaded with REO properties.
ALL OF THE OBAMA administration's attempts to revive, resuscitate and shock the housing markets into recovery have failed. Potential buyers can't purchase homes when they are losing their jobs, regardless of how attractive the credits and mortgages are. The price of homes will continue to fall until the properties are affordable for potential buyers.
If an investor could purchase a home and rent it out for close to breakeven, we might be getting close to a bottom. But we are nowhere close to that level in most critical markets. Until it is approached, prices will continue to fall. In fact, the negative cash flow now evident, along with the flood of properties coming into the inventory pool, warn of lower prices.
There's no light at the end of the tunnel yet. We're still supporting builders through misguided programs that are only adding to the inventory woes. California decided to offer a $10,000 credit to buyers of new homes, on top of the $8,000 federal credit. But California made the $10,000 available only for new homes purchased directly from builders. That shows the power of the builders' lobby, but it only adds to California's housing-industry problem. It encourages builders to construct dwellings we don't need, and it penalizes anyone else trying to sell a home.
Housing inventory soon will flood a market in which more than 500,000 homes are being built each year, even though the annual sales pace for new homes is closer to 300,000. We must also deal with a system clogged with impossible short sales, a surge of second and vacation homes being dumped, and third-wave flippers realizing that they entered the market too soon.
FOR THE BANKS, the back half of the hurricane will destroy balance sheets, unless the Obama administration comes up with another plan to mythically mark these assets on the books. Or we might see some chimerical plan to write down mortgage payments, or move toxic mortgages into a dark pool, or create some new illusion that glosses over the problem.
Our experience with banks' selling REOs is they realize about 50%-75% of what they initially think they will get. Moreover, their expenses to bring these properties to market and manage them are growing. Court systems bogged down with foreclosures are raising fees so that they can hire additional staff. More and more homeowners being evicted are stripping homes to the bone, removing appliances, fixtures, carpet, cabinets, air handlers, motorized garage-door openers and anything else that they can carry off or sell.
Unemployment presents a two-pronged problem. If homeowners lose their jobs, they have difficulty meeting mortgage payments. And a high jobless rate forces more people to put their homes on the market.
During the housing bubble, many second homes were purchased with the mythical equity from primary residences. These second homes are coming onto the market at an alarming rate, as many middle- and upper-class sellers need to raise cash. In some very exclusive private communities in Florida, where home prices are in the seven figures, more than 50% of the homes are on the market. (For more on the vacation-home market, see Cover Story.)
Unfortunately, there are no signs of recovery, despite the hype and the twisting of numbers in many media reports. The end of the unofficial moratorium on foreclosures, combined with rising unemployment, signals that the back half of this housing hurricane is only just beginning.
tattoo Stop Smoking Wallpapers
new_horizon
03-06 11:36 AM
There was a change in LUD for both me and my wife on 3/4/09. Then on my wife's, there were LUD ON 3/5 & now 3/6/09 also. When I open the Case Number, it shows the usual information "Current Status: Case received and pending". Any idea what this could mean. Thanks.
more...
pictures Miller Smoking Wallpaper
techskill
08-12 02:34 AM
There is something fishy. Its not possible that he could apply for 485 with the PD of September 2006 in June 2007 . Only people with priority date with June 2003 and earlier could apply. I know this because our PD is July 2003 and we applied only in July 2007. Please people stop this.
Since your PD is June 2003, you could have applied in June 2007 because in June Visa bulletin(released in May ) it moved till April 2004.
Since your PD is June 2003, you could have applied in June 2007 because in June Visa bulletin(released in May ) it moved till April 2004.
dresses Next Wallpaper. No Smoking
HD-X-Ray-View-Desktop-Wallpaper-Smoking-kills%255B2%255D.jpg "Wallpaper: Smoking Kills")
Kodi
06-16 01:57 PM
Mine is just over a month but won't be clearing for a while since there's lot more cases pending that were filed before me. Can I still email/Call?
They don't seem to be going in any order. Some applications from April was cleared recently where as Feb March is still pending..
They don't seem to be going in any order. Some applications from April was cleared recently where as Feb March is still pending..
more...
makeup Lil Wayne Smoking Wallpaper.
wandmaker
05-22 10:09 PM
^^^^^^
girlfriend Wallpaper Smoking.jpg
skgs2000
04-29 11:48 PM
I thnk we should list email/phones/fax besides each name here as well. It makes it easier. for sure, fones, letter, faxes all will help for sure !
hairstyles stop smoking wallpaper. stop
TeddyKoochu
12-11 11:14 AM
There are so many who missed the July 07...
we should try to seek temporary relief..allowing to file for 485 even without PD veing current.
CIR will happen when it has to happen..maybe after the health bill ...but IV not doing anything else while waiting for it is sad....
Second that! I hope something happens, is there any information as to when the pre-filing for I485 will be implemented.
we should try to seek temporary relief..allowing to file for 485 even without PD veing current.
CIR will happen when it has to happen..maybe after the health bill ...but IV not doing anything else while waiting for it is sad....
Second that! I hope something happens, is there any information as to when the pre-filing for I485 will be implemented.
pappu
08-12 10:55 AM
Senate Passage of Border Security Legislation
August 12, 2010
Today, I come to the floor to seek unanimous consent to pass a smart, tough, and effective $600 million bill that will significantly enhance the security and integrity of our nation’s southern border—which currently lacks the resources needed to fully combat the drug smugglers, gun-runners, human-traffickers, money launderers and other organized criminals that seek to do harm to innocent Americans along our border….
The best part of this border package, Mr. President, is that it is fully paid for and does not increase the deficit by a single penny. In actuality, the Congressional Budget Office has determined that this bill will yield a direct savings to taxpayers of $50 million….
The emergency border funds we are passing today are fully paid for by assessing fees on certain types of companies who hire foreign workers using certain types of visas in a way that Congress did not intend. I want to take a moment to explain exactly what we are doing in this bill a little further because I want everyone to clearly understand how these offsets are designed.
In 1990, Congress realized that the world was changing rapidly and that technological innovations like the internet were creating a high demand in the United States for high-tech workers to create new technologies and products. Consequently, Congress created the H-1B visa program to allow U.S. employers to hire foreign tech workers in special circumstances when they could not find an American citizen who was qualified for the job.
Many of the companies that use this program today are using the program in the exact way Congress intended. That is, these companies (like Microsoft, IBM, and Intel) are hiring bright foreign students educated in our American universities to work in the U.S. for 6 or 7 years to invent new product lines and technologies so that Microsoft, IBM, and Intel can sell more products to the American public. Then—at the expiration of the H-1B visa period—these companies apply for these talented workers to earn green cards and stay with the company.
When the H-1B visa program is used in this manner, it is a good program for everyone involved. It is good for the company. It is good for the worker. And it is good for the American people who benefit from the products and jobs created by the innovation of the H-1B visa holder.
Every day, companies like Oracle, Cisco, Apple and others use the H-1B visa program in the exact way I have just described—and their use of the program has greatly benefitted this country.
But recently, some companies have decided to exploit an unintended loophole in the H-1B visa program to use the program in a manner that many in Congress, including myself, do not believe is consistent with the program’s intent.
Rather than being a company that makes something, and simply needs to bring in a talented foreign worker to help innovate and create new products and technologies—these other companies are essentially creating “multinational temp agencies” that were never contemplated when the H-1B program was created.
The business model of these newer companies is not to make any new products or technologies like Microsoft or Apple does. Instead, their business model is to bring foreign tech workers into the United States who are willing to accept less pay than their American counterparts, place these workers into other companies in exchange for a “consulting fee,” and transfer these workers from company to company in order to maximize profits from placement fees. In other words, these companies are petitioning for foreign workers simply to then turn around and provide these same workers to other companies who need cheap labor for various short term projects.
Don’t take my word for it. If you look at the marketing materials of some of the companies that fall within the scope covered by today’s legislation, their materials boast about their “outsourcing expertise” and say that their advantage is their ability to conduct what they call “labor arbitrage” which is—in their own words—“transferring work functions to a lower cost environment for increased savings.”
The business model used by these companies within the United States is creating three major negative side effects. First, it is ruining the reputation of the H-1B program, which is overwhelmingly used by good actors for beneficial purposes. Second, according to the Economic Policy institute, it is lowering the wages for American tech workers already in the marketplace. Third, it is also discouraging many of our smartest students from entering the technology industry in the first place. Students can see that paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for advanced schooling is not worth the cost when the market is being flooded with foreign temporary workers willing to do tech-work for far less pay because their foreign education was much cheaper and they intend to move back home when their visa expires to a country where the cost of living is far less expensive.
This type of use of the H-1B visa program will be addressed as part of comprehensive immigration reform and will likely be dramatically restricted. We will be reforming the legal immigration system to encourage the world’s best and brightest individuals to come to the United States and create the new technologies and businesses that will employ countless American workers, but will discourage businesses from using our immigration laws as a means to obtain temporary and less-expensive foreign labor to replace capable American workers.
Nevertheless, I do wish to clarify a previous mischaracterization of these firms, where I labeled them as “chop shops.” That statement was incorrect, and I wish to acknowledge that. In the tech industry, these firms are sometimes known as “body shops” and that’s what I should have said.
While I strongly oppose the manner in which these firms are using the H-1B visa to accomplish objectives that Congress never intended, it would be unfortunate if anyone concluded from my remarks that these firms are engaging in illegal behavior.
But I also want to make clear that the purpose of this fee is not to target businesses from any particular country. Many news articles have reported that the only companies that will be affected by this fee are companies based in India and that, ipso facto, the purpose of this legislation must be to target Indian IT companies.
Well, it is simply untrue that the purpose of this legislation is to target Indian companies. We are simply raising fees for businesses who use the H-1B visa to do things that are contrary to the program’s original intent.
Visa fees will only increase for companies with more than 50 workers who continue to employ more than 50 percent of their employees through the H-1B program. Congress does not want the H-1B visa program to be a vehicle for creating multinational temp agencies where workers do not know what projects they will be working on—or what cities they will be working in—when they enter the country.
The fee is based solely upon the business model of the company, not the location of the company.
If you are using the H-1B visa to innovate new products and technologies for your own company to sell, that is a good thing regardless of whether the company was originally founded in India, Ireland, or Indiana.
But if you are using the H-1B visa to run a glorified international temp agency for tech workers in contravention of the spirit of the program, I and my colleagues believe that you should have to pay a higher fee to ensure that American workers are not losing their jobs because of unintended uses of the visa program that were never contemplated when the program was created.
This belief is consistent regardless of whether the company using these staffing practices was founded in Bangalore, Beijing, or Boston.
Raising the fees for companies hiring more than 50 percent of their workforce through foreign visas will accomplish two important goals. First, it will provide the necessary funds to secure our border without raising taxes or adding to the deficit. Second, it will level the playing field for American workers so that they do not lose out on good jobs here in America because it is cheaper to bring in a foreign worker rather than hire an American worker.
Let me tell you what objective folks around the world are saying about the impact of this fee increase. In an August 6, 2010, Wall Street Journal article, Avinash Vashistha—the CEO of a Bangalore based off-shoring advisory consulting firm—told the Journal that the new fee in this bill “would accelerate Indian firms’ plans to hire more American-born workers in the U.S.” What’s wrong with that? In an August 7, 2010 Economic Times Article, Jeya Kumar, a CEO of a top IT company, said that this bill would “erode cost arbitrage and cause a change in the operational model of Indian offshore providers.”
The leaders of this business model are agreeing that our bill will make it more expensive to bring in foreign tech workers to compete with American tech workers for jobs here in America. That means these companies are going to start having to hire U.S. tech workers again.
So Mr. President, this bill is not only a responsible border security bill, it has the dual advantage of creating more high-paying American jobs.
Finally, Mr. President, I want to be clear about one other thing. Even though passing this bill will secure our border, I again say that the only way to fully restore the rule of law to our entire immigration system is by passing comprehensive immigration reform….
The urgency for immigration reform cannot be overstated because it is so overdue. The time for excuses is now over, it is now time to get to work.
August 12, 2010
Today, I come to the floor to seek unanimous consent to pass a smart, tough, and effective $600 million bill that will significantly enhance the security and integrity of our nation’s southern border—which currently lacks the resources needed to fully combat the drug smugglers, gun-runners, human-traffickers, money launderers and other organized criminals that seek to do harm to innocent Americans along our border….
The best part of this border package, Mr. President, is that it is fully paid for and does not increase the deficit by a single penny. In actuality, the Congressional Budget Office has determined that this bill will yield a direct savings to taxpayers of $50 million….
The emergency border funds we are passing today are fully paid for by assessing fees on certain types of companies who hire foreign workers using certain types of visas in a way that Congress did not intend. I want to take a moment to explain exactly what we are doing in this bill a little further because I want everyone to clearly understand how these offsets are designed.
In 1990, Congress realized that the world was changing rapidly and that technological innovations like the internet were creating a high demand in the United States for high-tech workers to create new technologies and products. Consequently, Congress created the H-1B visa program to allow U.S. employers to hire foreign tech workers in special circumstances when they could not find an American citizen who was qualified for the job.
Many of the companies that use this program today are using the program in the exact way Congress intended. That is, these companies (like Microsoft, IBM, and Intel) are hiring bright foreign students educated in our American universities to work in the U.S. for 6 or 7 years to invent new product lines and technologies so that Microsoft, IBM, and Intel can sell more products to the American public. Then—at the expiration of the H-1B visa period—these companies apply for these talented workers to earn green cards and stay with the company.
When the H-1B visa program is used in this manner, it is a good program for everyone involved. It is good for the company. It is good for the worker. And it is good for the American people who benefit from the products and jobs created by the innovation of the H-1B visa holder.
Every day, companies like Oracle, Cisco, Apple and others use the H-1B visa program in the exact way I have just described—and their use of the program has greatly benefitted this country.
But recently, some companies have decided to exploit an unintended loophole in the H-1B visa program to use the program in a manner that many in Congress, including myself, do not believe is consistent with the program’s intent.
Rather than being a company that makes something, and simply needs to bring in a talented foreign worker to help innovate and create new products and technologies—these other companies are essentially creating “multinational temp agencies” that were never contemplated when the H-1B program was created.
The business model of these newer companies is not to make any new products or technologies like Microsoft or Apple does. Instead, their business model is to bring foreign tech workers into the United States who are willing to accept less pay than their American counterparts, place these workers into other companies in exchange for a “consulting fee,” and transfer these workers from company to company in order to maximize profits from placement fees. In other words, these companies are petitioning for foreign workers simply to then turn around and provide these same workers to other companies who need cheap labor for various short term projects.
Don’t take my word for it. If you look at the marketing materials of some of the companies that fall within the scope covered by today’s legislation, their materials boast about their “outsourcing expertise” and say that their advantage is their ability to conduct what they call “labor arbitrage” which is—in their own words—“transferring work functions to a lower cost environment for increased savings.”
The business model used by these companies within the United States is creating three major negative side effects. First, it is ruining the reputation of the H-1B program, which is overwhelmingly used by good actors for beneficial purposes. Second, according to the Economic Policy institute, it is lowering the wages for American tech workers already in the marketplace. Third, it is also discouraging many of our smartest students from entering the technology industry in the first place. Students can see that paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for advanced schooling is not worth the cost when the market is being flooded with foreign temporary workers willing to do tech-work for far less pay because their foreign education was much cheaper and they intend to move back home when their visa expires to a country where the cost of living is far less expensive.
This type of use of the H-1B visa program will be addressed as part of comprehensive immigration reform and will likely be dramatically restricted. We will be reforming the legal immigration system to encourage the world’s best and brightest individuals to come to the United States and create the new technologies and businesses that will employ countless American workers, but will discourage businesses from using our immigration laws as a means to obtain temporary and less-expensive foreign labor to replace capable American workers.
Nevertheless, I do wish to clarify a previous mischaracterization of these firms, where I labeled them as “chop shops.” That statement was incorrect, and I wish to acknowledge that. In the tech industry, these firms are sometimes known as “body shops” and that’s what I should have said.
While I strongly oppose the manner in which these firms are using the H-1B visa to accomplish objectives that Congress never intended, it would be unfortunate if anyone concluded from my remarks that these firms are engaging in illegal behavior.
But I also want to make clear that the purpose of this fee is not to target businesses from any particular country. Many news articles have reported that the only companies that will be affected by this fee are companies based in India and that, ipso facto, the purpose of this legislation must be to target Indian IT companies.
Well, it is simply untrue that the purpose of this legislation is to target Indian companies. We are simply raising fees for businesses who use the H-1B visa to do things that are contrary to the program’s original intent.
Visa fees will only increase for companies with more than 50 workers who continue to employ more than 50 percent of their employees through the H-1B program. Congress does not want the H-1B visa program to be a vehicle for creating multinational temp agencies where workers do not know what projects they will be working on—or what cities they will be working in—when they enter the country.
The fee is based solely upon the business model of the company, not the location of the company.
If you are using the H-1B visa to innovate new products and technologies for your own company to sell, that is a good thing regardless of whether the company was originally founded in India, Ireland, or Indiana.
But if you are using the H-1B visa to run a glorified international temp agency for tech workers in contravention of the spirit of the program, I and my colleagues believe that you should have to pay a higher fee to ensure that American workers are not losing their jobs because of unintended uses of the visa program that were never contemplated when the program was created.
This belief is consistent regardless of whether the company using these staffing practices was founded in Bangalore, Beijing, or Boston.
Raising the fees for companies hiring more than 50 percent of their workforce through foreign visas will accomplish two important goals. First, it will provide the necessary funds to secure our border without raising taxes or adding to the deficit. Second, it will level the playing field for American workers so that they do not lose out on good jobs here in America because it is cheaper to bring in a foreign worker rather than hire an American worker.
Let me tell you what objective folks around the world are saying about the impact of this fee increase. In an August 6, 2010, Wall Street Journal article, Avinash Vashistha—the CEO of a Bangalore based off-shoring advisory consulting firm—told the Journal that the new fee in this bill “would accelerate Indian firms’ plans to hire more American-born workers in the U.S.” What’s wrong with that? In an August 7, 2010 Economic Times Article, Jeya Kumar, a CEO of a top IT company, said that this bill would “erode cost arbitrage and cause a change in the operational model of Indian offshore providers.”
The leaders of this business model are agreeing that our bill will make it more expensive to bring in foreign tech workers to compete with American tech workers for jobs here in America. That means these companies are going to start having to hire U.S. tech workers again.
So Mr. President, this bill is not only a responsible border security bill, it has the dual advantage of creating more high-paying American jobs.
Finally, Mr. President, I want to be clear about one other thing. Even though passing this bill will secure our border, I again say that the only way to fully restore the rule of law to our entire immigration system is by passing comprehensive immigration reform….
The urgency for immigration reform cannot be overstated because it is so overdue. The time for excuses is now over, it is now time to get to work.
singhsa3
09-12 10:51 AM
It is a good idea, can please register your vote against "simple letter"
In my opinion, we should do this:
Just send two information to USCIS, DOS, President, VP, First Lady and all Congress person of the following:
1. 1st info should have a photocopy of our degree certificate(s). On the same page, print your expereince in years and total tax paid till date to the US government.
2. On a fresh page, type in all the H1B/L VISA approval information and type in bold, we were wanted/invited here legally (and admitted via H1/L).
And, mention that our I140 is approved which means the immigration department has validated our eligibility to become PR.
Ask a question (larger font) on the same page, why keep us on limbo?
This would keep the whole thing short and sweet. We are explicitly saying that we are legals. And we were invited here - legally. We are approved by immigration team to be a PR.
If we could send couple of thousands of letters, I am sure it would have impact as much as any other letter we have in mind.
We are not humiliating them, we are just expressing our frustrations but in mass. May be we can say something like, "Legal Techie slaves in the land of liberty" or "Immigration process that enslave Legal Techies". But, we should keep it short.
As always, ignore this idea if you guys dont like it.
In my opinion, we should do this:
Just send two information to USCIS, DOS, President, VP, First Lady and all Congress person of the following:
1. 1st info should have a photocopy of our degree certificate(s). On the same page, print your expereince in years and total tax paid till date to the US government.
2. On a fresh page, type in all the H1B/L VISA approval information and type in bold, we were wanted/invited here legally (and admitted via H1/L).
And, mention that our I140 is approved which means the immigration department has validated our eligibility to become PR.
Ask a question (larger font) on the same page, why keep us on limbo?
This would keep the whole thing short and sweet. We are explicitly saying that we are legals. And we were invited here - legally. We are approved by immigration team to be a PR.
If we could send couple of thousands of letters, I am sure it would have impact as much as any other letter we have in mind.
We are not humiliating them, we are just expressing our frustrations but in mass. May be we can say something like, "Legal Techie slaves in the land of liberty" or "Immigration process that enslave Legal Techies". But, we should keep it short.
As always, ignore this idea if you guys dont like it.
