Dear Readers:
The spring is usually pretty quiet for law firms when it comes to filing H-1B petitions. It has been years since the H-1B cap was available in May and in the last two years, so many applications were received on the first day of availability – April 1st – the government had to conduct a lottery to claim the visas.
But 2009 is no ordinary year. The world is mired in the worst recession in 75 years and unemployment in the US has doubled in the last year to nearly 9%. And that has caused H-1B application numbers to drop. USCIS has also been taking a much tougher line in the adjudication of cases, thus discouraging many applicants. And the US government also has been investigating much more vigorously fraud and abuse in the H-1B program and that presumably is depressing the number of applications – particularly from so-called job shops. And that’s a good thing since in the long run it will improve confidence in the program and also free up visas for firms that use the program legitimately.
How steep is the drop in demand for H-1B visas? USCIS has been reporting the figures every week since early April and the initial number was shocking – while the master’s cap of 20,000 was hit quickly, only 40,000 of 65,000 of the regular H-1B quota of visas were used. And seven weeks later, only 5,500 additional visas have been claimed.
USCIS has not released data yet on who is NOT applying for H-1B visas. However, anecdotal evidence points to a major drop in applications by “job shops” that have been the subject of a great deal of scorn by anti-H-1B groups. Some of the criticism stems from abusive behavior by various job shops such as not paying required salaries, not sending workers to the appropriate locations, submitting fraudulent documents on worker credentials, etc. And USCIS has recently begun cracking down with various investigations in to problem practices. The combination of the bad economy and tougher enforcement is likely causing some of these firms to either scrap or curtail their H-1B filings.
The failure to reach the H-1B cap is obviously great news for some employers. For example, physician employers still are facing a shortage and the ability to file H-1Bs will help enormously. Politically, the news of the reduction in H-1Bs could play out in various ways. Pro H-1B groups might argue that this is evidence that H-1Bs are not taking jobs away from American workers. If H-1B workers were really cheaper, wouldn’t employers be firing MORE Americans in order to save money right now? On the other hand, some of the pressure to raise the H-1B cap will be off and that is bad news for when the economy recovers. In the early part of this decade, something similar happened when the H-1B cap was allowed to be reset back to 65,000 (from 195,000 per year) during a recession and then when the economy recovered, the H-1B shortage was worse than ever.
When will the H-1B numbers run out? Right now, only a few hundred applications are being filed each week which could mean the visas are available for many more months.
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Many of you listened in on our very first national teleconference last week where I outlined 10 immigration issues making me lose sleep at night. The call went well, but our plan to record and post the call on the web site did not work out as planned due to a technical glitch. We’ve conducted another conference on May 26th on the impact of layoffs on immigrants. To stream or download the recording, go to http://visalaw.podbean.com. To sign up to be a part of our future teleconferences, go to http://www.visalaw.com/teleconform.html.
Earlier this month I was also a speaker at two conferences. Last Friday, I spoke on Internet marketing ethics to the Chicago Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. And the following day, I spoke to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists on the subject of physician immigration.
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Finally, as always, we welcome your feedback. If you are interested in becoming a Siskind Susser client, please call our office at 901-682-6455 and request a consultation. We are a national immigration law firm and work on a broad range of immigration matters for clients locating across the country.
Kind regards,
Greg Siskind
