But the law also creates a host of new difficulties. Most companies hire specialized lawyers to help them navigate the complex immigration procedures, and the relaxed rules now give employers reason to worry that the worker they spent thousands of dollars to hire and train will jump ship at the first opportunity for more money or a promotion. Baltimore-based immigration attorney Sheela Murthy believes it will now be easier for companies to poach H1-B workers - although she says employers have legal recourse if they can prove breach of contract.
Workers lack protections, too. If they quit a job because of exploitation, because of a family member's medical emergency or if they are suddenly laid off during a company restructuring, then they technically have lost their H1-B visa and can't remain in the States unless they secure a job offer from a new employer willing to sponsor the visa, according to Murali Krishna Devarakonda, a board member of the San Francisco chapter of Immigrants' Support Network, a lobbying group for foreign workers.
Many opponents of the visa program, however, say the issue is bigger than the implications of the new law. "H1-B workers make up only 10 percent of the IT workforce," says Grant Midland, manager of government relations for the Computing Technology Industry Association, a national lobbying organization that pushed for the new H1-B law. "The real problem is our educational system. Why aren't we producing enough programmers and tech workers in America?"
The Information Technology Association of America's latest study of the IT labor market found that 850,000 jobs were unfilled as of last April, with that figure expected to increase to 1.6 million by April 2001.
Even with a doubling of foreign workers, that leaves a need for well over 1 million domestic workers. To address the labor crunch, the new rules increase companies' H1-B application-processing fees from $500 to $1,000 per visa to help pay for programs that train American workers in high-tech skills.
Skeptics believe the higher fees won't have much impact. Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis and a critic of the visa program, says the training is geared toward technicians, not those with more advanced skills, such as programmers. Harris Miller, president of the ITAA, counters that the U.S. needs technicians, too, and those jobs are a good foundation for programming careers.
Congress is working on legislation that gives employers incentives to train domestic workers. One bill, the Technology Education and Training Act of 2000, outlines tax credits for small businesses that pay for employees' IT training. But until legislators, educators and business leaders can figure out how to funnel more Americans into high-tech careers, skilled workers from overseas will be the U.S. high-tech community's main staffing salvation - no matter how controversial.
Reena Jana is a writer in New York.
