New Rule Makes It Easier for Students to Get H-1Bs
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Just a few days into the H-1B visa filing season for the 2009 fiscal year, the Department of Homeland Security announced April 4 that it would be making it a little easier for foreign graduates of U.S. universities awaiting visas. F-1 non-immigrant student visa holders with degrees in STEM fields (science, technology, engineer and mathematics) were previously allowed to stay in the country for 12 months if they were employed by businesses through an OPT (Optional Practical Training)--an off-campus on-the-job training program directly related to their field of study. The new Homeland Security regulation extends this period to 29 months. Tech employers are likely to rejoice over this new rule, which reduces the chance that qualified students will be sent home before the company has a chance to hire them. "This rule will enable businesses to attract and retain highly skilled foreign workers, giving U.S. companies a competitive advantage in the world economy," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in a statement. "By extending the training period by an additional 17 months to students who are employed by businesses enrolled in E-Verify, we are further ensuring a legal work force in the U.S. and aiding good corporate citizens." Due to the lightening speed in which the annual H-1B visa supply is exhausted--in 2007, they were tapped out on day one--large tech employers such as Microsoft and Oracle have long complained that foreign graduates of U.S. universities were being shut out of the system. The filing period for H-1B begins April 1, while most students won't have their diplomas until the middle of May. The rule relaxes some of this pressure, allowing students to apply for their OPT within 60 days of graduation. |
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Comments (6)
Nice to see them give more American jobs away. Wonder what the government plans to do when there is less and less left of the tax base and fewer funds to pay for porkbarrel projects?
Posted by ex-IT-worker | April 8, 2008 12:44 AM
Thanks DHS for really going the extra mile to protect American citizens from foreign threats. Maybe we should outsource your jobs as well. I'm sure that folks from India, China and former Eastern bloc countries could do your jobs for a lot less money.
Posted by Thank you George Bush, Bill Clinton and Michael Chertoff | April 8, 2008 2:17 PM
"Wonder what the government plans to do when there is less and less left of the tax base and fewer funds to pay for porkbarrel projects?"
they'll just do what they always do - go deeper in debt
Posted by bob | April 10, 2008 6:31 PM
Actually, H1Bs pay more taxes than anyone else. They pay for social security and medicare even though they won't be eligible for the benefits since their work authorization lasts only six years.
Considering the number of h1bs in well paid technology jobs, that is a lot of money flowing into the shrinking social security and medicare pool basically being forcefully appropriated from foreign temporary employees.
Posted by yakrider | April 12, 2008 5:47 PM
Well, with the shrinking US middle income base, where are all of the consumer economy drivers going to come from when H1Bs have all of the technology jobs and then move back home after they suck us dry. We already can't manufacture much anymore, the same thing will happen to technology and we'll become another third world country and the entire world economy will collapse, because we will have no more middle income consumers. Why can't people see that these programs are aimed at employers who don't want to pay fair wages to Americans? It just proves that our government is by business for business. Forget the people, they don't count.
Posted by bluezone | April 14, 2008 7:03 PM
Foreign students hit the gold mine, but American STEMS are getting the shaft.
A new op-ed about the OPT extension explains why Chertoff and the DHS broke their own rules and violated the Constitution:
The Search for Internships Just Got Tougher
Posted by robsanz | April 22, 2008 6:49 PM