Main article: U.S. work visas
The American H1B work visa is a foreign tourist visa that allows an American company to hire a foreign worker for up to six years (June 2017). Applying for a non-immigration visa is usually faster than applying for an American Green Card. H1-B is popular because it is easier to obtain it than an immigration visa.
Quotas for H1B visas
H1B work visas are subject to annual quotas. In 2012, the government USA issued 129,000 H-1B visas. Most of all visas were received by immigrants from. India
For 2018, the quota is 85 thousand places.
Who is given H1B visas
The H1B visa is designed for entry into the country of specialists who will occupy jobs that require specialized knowledge. It is necessary that the bachelor's degree is also accompanied by experience in this specialty (this requirement can be applied if you have a 3-year degree and 3 years of the corresponding specialty of work experience after graduation).
A person without a higher formations can be hired on an H1B visa in USA if they can confirm that they are a specialist equivalent to a certified person based on experience of twelve or more years in a particular occupation industry.
H1B visas can only be requested by employers
People cannot individually obtain a work visa N1V to work in the United States. An entrepreneur who wants to hire an immigrating person must apply for the applicant to enter.
American entrepreneurs can start requesting an H-1B visa six months before the actual start date of the visa. Entrepreneurs can apply for the H-1B work visa immediately after April 1 for the fiscal year visa, which begins October 1, but the work visa will not be able to be issued before October 1.
H1B work visa legislation requires certain employers, called "H1B Worker Sponsoring Employers," to advertise a vacant place of work within the United States before applying for an H1B work visa for an employee who, upon their arrival in the United States, will occupy a given workplace.
Employers sponsoring an H1B work visa for an employee from abroad may be those entrepreneurs whose employees of companies have no more than 15% of employees who arrived in the United States on an H1B work visa. In addition, new H1B visa applications and the first visa renewal must be paid US $1,000 (in addition to regular visa processing fees) to be used to fund the Permanent American Worker Training Program.
A company that brought an employee to the United States on an H1B work visa must fire him before the visa expires. The Company is responsible for any reasonable costs incurred by the employee in moving back to his last permanent residence. This condition applies only to certain set costs when a worker is fired.
Visa Validity Period and Green Card
An initial visa can be obtained for up to three years. It can be extended for the first time for two years, then for another year. Thus, the maximum possible visa validity period is 6 years. Those who wish to stay in the US for more than 6 years, with a valid H1B visa, can ask for a permanent residence permit (Green Card). If such employees do not obtain permanent residence at the end of the six-year period, they must be outside the United States for at least one year before applying for a Type H or L visa.
2013 immigration reform
Since the summer of 2012, the US government has been discussing an immigration reform project that should make it easier to obtain green cards and H1-B work visas for immigrants moving to the United States to work in the engineering industry. By attracting labor from abroad, it is planned to fill the shortage of qualified personnel, the graduation of which American universities cannot cope with.
In May 2013, the United States Senate Legal Committee approved, by a vote of 13-5, an extensive package of bills to change the visa regime for entering the United States to seek employment. The bills are approved by the Committee with an important amendment easing restrictions on companies wishing to invite highly skilled employees from abroad on an H1-B work visa. The amendment was introduced by representatives of both American parties - Democrat Charles Schumer and Republican Orrin Hatch. Under the original bill relating to H1-B, the limit on the number of visas issued to the U.S. in a single year was 65,000. Now this number has almost tripled - from 65,000 to 180,000.
The current version, in addition, removes some of the requirements for American companies hiring foreign engineers and programmers. Initially, the bill provided that employers have the right to invite a foreign employee on a work visa only if they are able to prove that there was no suitable candidate from among US citizens for this position.
Now this requirement has been removed for a significant part of American companies. Proving that the vacancy was first offered to American candidates will only have to those companies where foreigners make up more than 15% of the state - the so-called "H1-B dependent" (a term introduced by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service in 2000).
The Schumer-Hatch Compromise, as the American press calls the amendment, removed another limitation of the original bill: previously, a company that refused a place to an American employee was prohibited from applying for an H1-B visa to a foreigner within 90 days. Thanks to the amendment, it now does not apply to companies that employ less than 15% of foreign employees.
The amendment marks a major victory for the American tech sector, actively lobbying for changes to immigration law and equally actively protesting any restrictions that make hiring difficult. Silicon Valley argues that the introduction of additional restrictions on the hiring of engineers and programmers slows the growth and innovative development of the American IT-Business[1].
New 2017 H1B Visa Guidelines
In April 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued new H1-B work visa guidelines that tightened requirements for visa applicants. From now on, programmers wishing to work in the United States under the H1-B program must prove that they are actually programmers. The changes will entail an increase in the package of submitted documents and the general bureaucratization of the procedure, wrote The Times of India.
The new management entered into force on the eve of the drawing of 85 thousand visas for 2018. It was expected that it would hit primarily IT specialists of Indian origin and outsourcing companies that employ them, such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro.
Management revokes the document titled "H1-B Computer Related Workplaces Memo." The memo was compiled by Terry Way, former director of the H1-B Request Processing Service Center in Nebraska. The document entered into force in December 2000. USCIS believes that it no longer reflects the department's policy on the visa issue.
Wei's memo was based on the 1998-1999 and 2000-2001 revision of the U.S. Handbook of Professional Prospects. Many computer-related professions were in transition at the time, and the overall system of IT specialties had changed significantly by 2017, USCIS said. Wei's memo required an H1-B applicant to grant a bachelor's degree or higher in one of the specialties listed in the Handbook of Professional Prospects. USCIS believes that this is not enough, so henceforth the H1-B applicant must provide other than a diploma evidence that the degree he received "in computer science" really refers to programming.
Wei's memo makes no particular distinction at all between work directly related to code writing and testing and ancillary IT specializations. Because of this, H1-B applicants who hold an associate's degree (below bachelor's) could apply for jobs of any complexity, including those related directly to programming. USCIS is going to end this by drawing a clear distinction between "entry level" jobs and positions that require a certain qualification. In the first case, the work will not be considered at all as a visa IT specialty, and in the second case, a bachelor's degree and above will be required.
That is, in order to obtain a visa, the applicant must prove that his future work is more "complex, specialized and unique" in comparison with other work in the same industry. One such evidence may be a certain level of salary that the employer offers him. Also, the candidate will have to describe the level of complexity of his job duties, the degree of concentration in their implementation, the level of judgments that the work requires, and the degree of understanding of the workflow. And to prove that all this is more difficult and necessary than other activities in the same industry.
The revision of the procedure for issuing an H1-B visa is a fulfillment of the campaign promise of President Donald Trump (Donald Trump), who intends to return to the Americans jobs occupied by foreign IT specialists. The presidential decree that changed the principles of H-1B distribution among applicants was issued in January 2017. The USCIS leadership implemented the main provisions of this decree.
Perhaps in the future, other changes will be made to the procedure for issuing visas. Even during the election campaign, Trump, together with Senator Jeff Sessions, prepared a bill that was supposed to significantly increase the cost of the H-1B visa for applicants.
Speaking in February 2016 in Alabama, Trump introduced two former Disney IT employees to the audience, whom management replaced with foreigners. Dena Moore and Leo Perrero told attendees that before they were fired, they were forced to train their changers who arrived on an H-1B visa.
In January 2016, these employees filed a lawsuit against Disney and two IT outsourcers - HCL and Cognizant, accusing them of conspiring to fire American workers. The lawsuit was annulled by the U.S. Federal Court. However, in December 2016, another lawsuit was filed against Disney, in which former employees of the IT department accused the company of discrimination on national and racial grounds.
According to the plaintiffs, in October 2014, Disney management began implementing a plan to attract outsourcing companies to carry out a number of IT processes. After that, the composition of IT specialists in Disney offices changed significantly - the number of employees from South Asia increased. In this regard, in January 2015, about 250 Disney IT specialists were fired[2].
Chronicle
2025: Amazon, Tata and Microsoft lead the way on H1B visas
2024: How IT outsourcers used fraudulent H-1B visa lottery schemes in the US for years
At the end of July 2024, it became known that IT outsourcers and recruitment agencies have been using fraudulent schemes with the H-1B visa lottery in the United States for years. This allows them to attract cheap labour and gain unfair benefits.
The problem was reported by Bloomberg. H-1B is a non-immigrant work visa for employees of certain professions that allows them to live and work in the United States. Tech corporations, startups, banks, drugmakers and other companies are vying for places, hoping to attract foreign graduates from top U.S. universities who would otherwise have to leave the country. The program is conceived as a way to help American businesses gain access to the world's best specialists. But instead, outsourcing and staffing companies attract less qualified candidates, paying them less wages.
Companies often cheat by submitting multiple applications for the same worker, the agency said. Among the largest IT outsourcers in the publication are named Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant, HCL and Tata. At the same time, the publication does not specify which companies are using fraudulent schemes.
Experts analyzed data for 2020-2023 and came to the conclusion that some companies use a fraud scheme called "multiple registration." It consists in submitting numerous lottery applications for the same person. According to Bloomberg estimates, approximately 15.5 thousand visas, that is, almost one out of every six issued in 2023, were obtained in this way. At the same time, the chances of success among conscientious applicants are reduced.
Under H-1B rules, companies must confirm they have a "legitimate job offer" for each visa. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is responsible for issuing H-1B visa permits, changed lottery rules by eliminating several registration schemes. Nevertheless, for companies that use fraudulent schemes, the consequences turn out to be insignificant. The fact is that regulators can cancel individual visas, but do not have the right to prohibit companies from participating in the lottery.[3]
2022: Massive layoffs of IT professionals who own work visas begin in the US
On November 21, 2022, it became known that in the United States there are massive layoffs of IT specialists who came to the country on work visas. Employees who have fallen under the reduction are forced to urgently look for a new place of work or return to their homeland.
We are talking about the H-1B visa: this is a non-immigrant visa that is intended for foreign specialists with at least a bachelor's degree and a job offer from a company in the United States. The document makes it possible to work in the United States for a limited period of time.
The American tech industry has long relied on the H-1B visa program to meet its worker needs in specialized fields such as computer science and engineering. It is estimated that in the last three years alone, giants such as Amazon, Lyft, Meta (recognized as an extremist organization; activities in Russia are prohibited), Salesforce, Stripe and Twitter, invited at least 45 thousand foreign workers.
However, due to the current geopolitical situation, a wave of layoffs swept through the US IT industry, affecting specialists with H-1B visas. For example, Meta and Twitter have recently cut approximately 350 workers. Many of these professionals have mortgages, student loans and children in school. Now they are forced to frantically look for work along with thousands of other technical staff.
According to the US Department of Labor, the average salary of an employee with an H-1B visa is $106 thousand per year. But specialists from leading technology companies earn much more. Thus, the average salary of an H-1B employee in Meta, Salesforce and Twitter reaches $175 thousand per year, not counting large bonuses and options. Some of the dismissed employees will have to leave the United States without work.[4]
2021: Dell has issued work visas to hundreds of foreign employees and pays them more than $200,000 a year
At the end of October 2021, it was reported that Dell had hired hundreds of new employees - from engineers and sellers to project managers and directors - on H-1B work visas. The salaries of most of the employees hired are in the low six-figure range. Read more here
2019: The number of H-1B work visa refusals in the US has risen 9-fold. IT companies open offices in Canada and Mexico
By the end of May 2019, the number of refusals to issue H-1B work visas in the United States increased 9 times. Canada and Mexico have become centers of alternative development for IT service companies, but these are only temporary measures, and the difficult problem facing employers requires a long-term and reliable solution.
Donald Trump's protest against H-1B visas has had a radical impact on the business models of Indian IT firms. The work visa denial rate for the top 6 companies (TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant and HCL Technologies) fluctuated within 4% on average in 2015. However, the figure soared to 36% between September 2018 and April 2019. Even global IT companies such as Accenture and Deloitte with embedded offshore models have been hit by their reliance on work visas.
Tightening the criteria used to issue the H-1B visa, scrutinizing applicants and their qualifications, as well as visits to workplaces all contributed to a sharp reduction in visa issuance and forced IT executives to look for new ways to serve their customers in the United States (making up up up to 60-70% of their business).
One positive change for American technology professionals is the fact that these changes have forced IT companies to actively train and recruit American citizens. Almost all major IT companies have opened innovation centers and campuses and recruited tens of thousands of candidates.
But that still doesn't solve the gap between middle and senior. Kotak Institutional Equities Research has presented a report that talented entry-level professionals are needed and available, but they cannot participate in the knowledge transfer or project initiation phase. In other words, mid- and senior-level professionals - experienced consulting engineers who can lead flexible teams - are required to perform optimally. However, they are simply not among those specialists who are allowed to work in the United States.
One of the options for an immediate solution to the problem is to move offices to Canada and Mexico in order to use talented specialists from there. For example, Tech Mahindra announced that it will create a center for advanced technology in Canada, investing $100 million in it. Similarly, mid-size IT company Hexaware said it would use its Mexican hub to serve U.S. customers.
Outsourcing to near abroad has a serious impact on the company's operating costs, but this is the best option after outsourcing from India. In addition, the TN visa for Mexican and Canadian skilled workers is a valuable tool by which IT companies can attract new employees without burdening themselves with the stringent requirements of H-1B cards.
But here, too, there are limitations. Despite the fact that outsourcing in the near abroad makes it easy to find specialists, engineers who go to the United States on a work visa are not allowed to do any profitable work in the United States. In other words, relying on outsourcing in near abroad cannot be a long-term solution to the current crisis.
This means that at the moment, IT companies that rely on hiring employees with H-1B visas to implement the project will have to look for new ways to do business. As Accenture's example has shown, even IT leaders still rely heavily on the offshore component. The only question is how long they will be able to cover the high costs associated with H-1B refusals without compromising the services provided.[5]
2018: US President Donald Trump vs. IT outsourcers. H-1B work visa issuance falls to 7-year low
In April 2018, it became known that the number of H-1B visas issued in the United States had decreased to a minimum of 7 years ago. Because of this, foreign (mainly Indian) IT outsourcing companies are primarily affected.
President Donald Trump proposed to revise the program for the distribution of temporary work visas that were provided to highly qualified employees from abroad. The statements of the American leader do not provide for immediate changes in the procedure for issuing work visas, but Trump calls on the relevant state bodies to study the current legislation and make recommendations for its revision.
Separate prescriptions relate to the non-immigrant H-1B visa, which allows educated foreign professionals - mainly in the IT field - to work in the United States for up to six consecutive years in positions that local workers have failed to close. H-1B visa holders can even submit an application for permanent residence in the United States. The visa application must be sponsored by the employer. He enters into contracts with banks, medical companies and other enterprises to solve various problems in the IT sphere.
Earlier, in 2015, then-US President Barack Obama expanded the program, allowing spouses of foreign professionals to also work in the United States. However, Donald Trump proposed to consider changes under which visas will be issued only to the most educated and highly paid migrants.
According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), in 2017, slightly more than 197,000 people received an H-1B work visa (the lowest figure since 2010), and applications were rejected in 80% of cases - usually this share was only 60%. From January 1 to April 7, 2018, 190,098 H-1B visa applications were submitted, which is 10 thousand less than in the same period of the previous year.
The next stage is the lottery, according to its results, 65 thousand specialists with a bachelor's degree and another 20 thousand foreign students who graduated from the master's degree will be selected. The release of Trump's new executive order will cause an even greater decline in the flow of statements. Particular concern in connection with these measures was expressed by IT companies - Wipro, TCS, Infosys - and the media in India, where about 70% of visa holders come from. Representatives of IT companies say that restricting the entry of highly educated migrants will deal a heavy blow to the high-tech industry.
The implementation of these measures is due to the abuse of visas, which are provided to poorly educated workers who are ready to work for less wages than American citizens. In addition, experts raise concerns about structural changes in the American workforce; in particular, many US-educated IT workers are unable to gain the start-up work experience needed to enter more complex technical roles as they are displaced by foreign professionals.
However, there is a possibility that the measures introduced by the president will not affect the balance of power: according to a study by the National Fund for American Policy, the reduction in the annual limit for H-1B in 2004 did not contribute to an increase in the share of employees born in the United States. Instead, the measures introduced simply reduced the proportion of highly skilled foreign professionals the U.S. economy desperately needed - and as a result, industry competition and product quality fell.
Trump's stance, however, is not the only factor influencing the issuance of H-1B. The fact is that the IT sector no longer needs simple infrastructure maintenance. Now highly educated specialists in the field of artificial intelligence, robotics and mobile applications are in demand. This model requires much less labor than the previous one.
In addition, the Indian IT system quickly responded to these changes by hiring relevant specialists in the United States - they not only have the necessary skills, but are also ready to focus on the client. Perhaps IT and migration services should completely revise the requirements for issuing visas so that highly qualified specialists from the United States and other countries can effectively work together, writes ZDNet.[6]
2016: H1B work visa rise in price. India raises IT prices
On January 12, 2016, it became known about the intentions of Indian IT outsourcers to raise prices for their services in response to an increase in the cost of work visas in the United States, which is the largest market for technology companies from India.
In December 2015, the U.S. Congress passed a bill to double the cost of paying for short-term H1B and L1 visas for foreign workers.
Every year, Indian outsourcing companies send thousands of their employees to the United States to work on the ground and generate approximately three-quarters of their revenue there. Taking into account innovations in American immigration policy, Indian IT companies will lose $400 million, according to software the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).
As investors told Reuters, in order to compensate for additional losses, IT outsourcers registered in India will increase the cost of their services for customers and will work with them more remotely. Investors estimate that the increase in spending on U.S. work visas will reduce profit margins for IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys by 50 to 60 basis points.
IDBI Federal Life Insurance Chief Investment Officer Aneesh Srivastava says raising US visa processing fees is a challenge for Indian companies, but they can recoup some of the costs by renegotiating contracts and at the expense of a strong dollar.
 | The growing visa levy is baseless as it disproportionately hits Indian firms' businesses hard. Immigration reform in the United States will happen sooner or later, said Nasscom President R. Chandrasekhar. |  |
At the same time, analysts say that Indian technology companies will already send fewer employees on business trips, as they pay more attention to digital services instead of projects to support IT infrastructures on the ground and software development.[7]
Notes
- ↑ Silicon Valley wins the battle for visas for IT specialists
- ↑ by Trump closing the United States from foreign programmers
- ↑ How Thousands of Middlemen Are Gaming the H-1B Program
- ↑ Tech Layoffs Send H-1B Visa Holders Scrambling for New Jobs
- ↑ With H-1B rejection rates approaching 40%, Indian IT will urgently need a new service delivery model
- ↑ For Indian IT, the H-1B is dying. Long live the H-1B!
- ↑ India IT firms may raise fees to counter dearer U.S. visas
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