H-1B visa--just the facts
1. Myth: H-1B visa holders get paid less than American workers, and they drive down the overall salaries of the U.S. work force.
Reality: According to the Department of Labor, employers must prove that the salaries they provide H-1B visa holders are at least the "prevailing" wages for the specific jobs in that region. Employers typically file salary determination requests with the State Employment Security Agency to determine wages. H-1B visa holders' salaries might not advance as quickly as those of their American colleagues, but that is because the visa holders do not change jobs or get promoted as frequently--not because they start with a lower base salary.
2. Myth: H-1B visa holders must leave the country as soon as they get laid off.
Reality: Although a laid-off H-1B visa worker has no legal authorization to be in the United States, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has never prosecuted anyone for remaining. The INS has no official guidelines regarding fired or laid-off H-1B visa holders, but it expects to issue guidelines later this year. Many jobless foreigners choose to leave, but mainly because of financial or familial, not legal, constraints.
3. Myth: H-1B visa holders take technology jobs from American workers, relegating U.S. citizens to lower-paying, non-technical jobs.
Reality: Employers may hire workers under H-1B visas only if they cannot find suitable U.S. citizens. The Department of Labor's Employment & Training Administration (ETA) set up a technical-skills training grant program, awarding cash to business partnerships that provide computer and engineering training to American workers. The ETA says its goal is to "lessen their dependence on high-skilled foreign workers," not increase it.
4. Myth: "Body shops" are middleman recruitment agencies that exploit workers.
Reality: Some lawyers and economists suggest that the companies actually help boost the economic and intellectual status of U.S. immigration, and that they helped fuel the late-1990s tech boom by filling positions that the U.S. education system could not fill.
5. Myth: Most H-1B visa holders are computer programmers imported from India.
Reality: H-1B visa holders are diverse, according to the first and only demographic survey by the INS, which was published from 1999 data on the U.S. General Accounting Office Web site: Fifty-nine percent work in information technology, and 5 percent work in electronics or engineering. The rest are mainly teachers, researchers, accountants, auditors, economists, doctors or commercial artists.
Forty-eight percent are from India, 9 percent are from China, 3 percent are from the United Kingdom, 3 percent are from Canada, and 3 percent are from the Philippines. Forty-two percent of all H-1B visa holders were living in the United States when their visas were approved, mainly on student visas or on visas for spouses and children of foreign students or visitors.
6. Myth: H-1B visa holders fill a critical void in the labor market.
Reality: Economists, immigration specialists and politicians debate whether the United States--or any capitalist economy--has ever had a shortage of workers. Some say the market will immediately correct for shortages by driving up wages and providing an incentive for Americans to enter underrepresented professions. Others say the problem rests with the U.S. school system, which is not producing the same ratio of science-oriented students as do Asian countries, and the bureaucratic education industry cannot immediately adapt to market changes.
7. Myth: H-1B visa holders leave the country when their six-year contracts expire.
Reality: About 50 percent of all H-1B visa holders receive green cards to work in the country permanently, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Even more apply but are rejected. The department has about 300,000 H-1B visa workers waiting to be approved for green cards.