Your argument about low wages paid to H-1b visa holders are just not accurate. Every US Employer must pay the "prevailing wage" or higher. If you have a problem wiht that, then get over it.

WE NEED MORE H-1B visas, not less !!!!!!!!!!

I find it suspicious that the same people who are concerned that American Companies will not be able to stay competitive without insourcing, have no problem with the inevitable fact that the number of Americans going into these careers is on the Decline due to it.

The same people are perfectly fine just handing it all over to foreign nationals who are subject (however unlikely) to changes in immigration policy that would eliminate or curtail their presence here?

Read the forum postings by H-1B visa holders. They are NOT paid the wages required by law. Some are treated as indentured slaves by their employers. They are not provided the benefits - such as health insurance - that contribute to the costs of hiring American workers.

The OPT and CPT programs allow employers to hire workers without paying Social Security and Medicare taxes. In addition, the so called students do not pay these taxes either.

The large number of guest workers contributes to the number of elderly foreign visitors who often spend six months of the year in the US. These visitors do not have health insurance and end up on emergency Medicaid or leaving the country without paying their medical bills further contributing to the health care crisis.

"I do not believe there is an overwhelming IT labor shortage, but I do know that application, database and security-centered jobs (SAP, Oracle, SOA, etc.) are hard to fill and in demand, and the salaries that can be found there are well-paid."

Those jobs SHOULD be much harder to fill and the pay should be much higher, because most self-respecting software engineers and data-base analysts should refuse to do them on ethical grounds due to the massive privacy violations involved.

The fact is there is no STEM or IT or software product development talent shortage. Studies by researchers from Georgetown, the Urban Institute, RAND Corporation, Harvard, Stanford, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Rochester Institute of Technology, UC Davis and Duke university are unanimous that we have been continually producing far more STEM workers than we've been employing in these fields, and pushing them out of the field unnecessarily through age discrimination. The talent demand projections from BLS, set alongside the degrees earned by US citizens confirm this, and I'm confident that the same probably holds in the UK and Japan where the "shortage" whining by executives is about as loud. And the executives whining the loudest seem to be the ones sitting on the largest data-bases of able and willing applicants.

Employment of production workers in software publishing has been stagnant since about 2000, while few of even the eldest software developers are ready to retire, between 500K and 1.3M able and willing software developers are unemployed and under-employed, and tens of thousands of additional talented US citizens keep flowing from the pipe-line each year.

It makes sense for US companies to engage in the exploitation of other human beings for immoral profits? Where have I seen comments like that before...? Probably when this country was founded and a significant segment of the population found it very profitable to enslave peoples kidnapped from other landsto work for no payment at all. Companies that promote the importation of H-1B workers or ship work out or the country to take advantage of cheap labor are selling their corporate souls in the name of the bottom line. Are the people in these countries going to buy their products? Probably not. These companies will continue to peddle their goods to the same American workers to whom they deny a job. Shame on all who participate in this fraud and those who promote and pass the 'laws' that allow this activity.

While it is understandable that a company would be interested in saving costs wherever possible, it should be remembered that the H1-B visa program doesn't exist to help employers cut costs, it exists to help employers when there's not enough talent. Those are two entirely different things.

I guess it's an unfortunate truth that employers are expected to be unamerican and hire foreign employees to save money, but we're supposed to buy American and be good patriots.

As stated by many, unbiased studies show conclusively that shortages of STEM talent are rare. Employers doing business in the US benefit from many benefits of USA Society and business climate. While I oppose most government regulation (yes, even in the current economic situation), I believe that the privilege of doing business in the USA should carry an obligation to the welfare and well being of its citizens and society as a whole, especially in the area of employment practices. I propose:

1) H1B, and all other work visas for foreign workers shall be valid for 12 months (perhaps 15 months) maximum, shall not be renewable or extendable for any reason, and shall be followed by a 5 times longer period of ineligibility for ANY US visa (including tourist and student). Direct family members shall be barred entry to the US for the visa period and the concurrent ineligibility period. Absolutely no wavers or exceptions shall be allowed for any reason what so ever.

2) Employers should be required to publish all job requirements, in detail, online and in journals of all directly applicable professional societies for a minimum of 5 months prior to accepting or evaluating foreign applicants. All US citizen applicants meeting most (>= 85%) of the published requirements must be hired, with fully paid relocation, before offering a position to a foreign national.

3) Visa applications must be made for a specific person and a specific position after the 5 month US only period in #2, above. Foreign applicants must meet 100% of published job requirements before an application for a visa in submitted.

4) While a foreign employee is holding a position the position must continue to be advertised in all the venues mentioned in #2, above. Should any US citizen make application and meet most (>= 85%) of the published job requirements, then the US citizen must be hired immediately, replacing the foreign worker. The work visa of the foreign worker expires 15 days after the hire of the US citizen and the foreign worker must leave the USA within that period (hiring corporation being responsible for enforcing departure - a fine of 1 year’s total compensation for the replacement US citizen for each day that the foreign worker remains in the USA past 15 days). All future visa restrictions attach to replaced foreign worker as if that person had continued to work in the USA for the duration of the now void visa.

5) Foreign workers who have worked in the USA and then left the USA, either during the term of the visa or at the end of the visa shall not be employed by their USA employer (parent, subsidiary, or affiliate) either in the US or elsewhere until the individual is again eligible for a USA work visa.

6) Under no circumstances shall the holder of a Student visa be allowed to work in the USA (at the attended educational institution or elsewhere) for compensation of any kind (including credit toward, discount on, or waiver of institution tuition, fees, room, or board in whole or in part). Student visa holders shall be ineligible for any type of USA work visa until they have worked in their home country for a non-US corporation(s) in the area of their studies for a period equal to the time from their first entry to the USA on a student visa until the expiration of their most recent student visa, but not less than 18 months.

7) No person who has ever entered the USA illegally shall be granted a visa allowing them to work in the USA.

jem, you're an idiot. I know people are opposed to illegal immigration, but visas are legal immigration. What part of "legal" don't you understand?

Your ideas are mean-spirited, bigoted, and impractical. 5 months lead time? A firm has to automatically replace a trained visa-holder at any time with a less-qualified citizen without even the benefit of an interview? No families? No tourism?

It wouldn't work, which is obviously your intent.

Believe it or not, tech workers aren't sneaking across the Mexican border.

The poster that said employers are required to pay the prevailing wage to H1B holders is living in fantasy land. The law states they must but a GAO study stated the opposite. H1B holders are paid 10,000 to 25,000 dollars a year less than the Americans they are replacing. Those of you who support Obama and McCain should be aware that they support 550 thousand additional visas in addition to the million they approved last year using the recapture provision. Are these candidates and this government really working for and truly representing the American people?

The demand from US companies for H1B visas to foreign IT workers is caused by three factors. First is the drop in the number of students in the US wanting to enroll in engineering and computer science courses that results in reduced availability of qualified people for hiring.

Second is the matter of TOTAL cost of delivering IT services to customers of US companies. This cost is not merely that of the in house IT setup but the cost of supporting customers, answering their queries, warranty support and the like.

Third is the question of quality of software development, implementation and maintenance. The onsite H1B software professional is often the front end of the outsourcing partner who has most of his skilled resources offshore. This is how he delivers world class service at a cost that an inhouse setup cannot hope to deliver as inhouse one just cannot afford to keep specialists to ensure quality assurance, rigorous testing, efficient facilities management and the like.

It is this combination of factors that has led US companies to demand higher quotas for H1B visas so they could get more of them from overseas. The H1B workers get the same pay as other staff hired by the US company. The issue is thus one of demand and supply not one of conning US citizens of their jobs.

Wow JEM - while you are at it, why don't you transform USA to Nazi Germany...

Almost everyone in IT makes a VERY good living compared to the effort/study required to get into and stay in the field. How are a few thousand H-1Bs each year significantly reducing the compensation for the millions employed in IT?

I say allowing 50+ thousand foreign workers makes US companies more competitive in the world market and keeps current IT workers honest and helps them become less greedy...

The greed is that of employers seeking to drive the cost of labour down world wide, as everyone struggles to enter the lowest bid for their labor. The Government of a nation state owes it's allegiance to it's citizens, not to the rich. A nation state's economy has the function of an equaitable distribution of income to it's citizens. American have been brainwashed in the last 40 years, so that they are continuously working harder and longer and getting less income per unit output. Funny, hysterical really how we were told in school in the 60s that automation would lead to increased leisure and increased employment without end. Personally I'd like to see the bailout fail to pass, I'd love to see the greedy plutocrats strung up by their heels from lamp-posts, as they so richly deserve. No more H-1Bs, illegal immigrants to be returned to the country of origin.

One other side of the story is that 80% of H1b approved this year facing hard time getting a job and most of the H1b sponser body shoppers are not able to trace job from them

There are several American workers who will work as hard and harder and smarter but are not even considered due to the wage dispute. Some employers bench H1b employees at a low rate until they can find a position for them and put them back to work, still at a lower wage. The point is there are American workers who would be willing to take less pay but at least have a job. Unemployment is not a good option for anyone, particularly for American's looking for work in their own country!!!