As Washington embarks on a tumultuous debate over immigration reform, one of the more popular visas — with major importance to Atlanta companies — is likely to avoid the red-hot rhetoric that typically singes foreign worker programs.
Each year the Department of Homeland Security issues thousands of H-1B visas to educated and skilled foreigners deemed crucial by U.S. companies who report an inability to fill jobs with U.S. citizens. Workers in high-tech fields, health care and teaching account for many of the 65,000 visas allotted nationally each year.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, with the tacit approval of President Barack Obama, is proposing to boost the annual visa quota to 115,000. The cap could rise to 300,000 to satisfy a roaring economy.
A wide range of Atlanta companies depend heavily on the program. Metro Atlanta ranks sixth nationwide in the number of visas — 5,108 — issued in fiscal 2011. Computer programmers in Alpharetta, software engineers in Duluth, researchers at Georgia Tech, doctors and pharmacists in Marietta, College Park and beyond have all been hired for supposedly hard-to-fill positions.
Critics, though, say companies abuse the visa program, hiring lower-paid immigrants when willing Americans need work. Older workers, engineers and computer programmers in particular, are bypassed in favor of younger, cheaper foreigners, they say.
The push for visa expansion, though, seems unrelenting, backed heavily by technology companies, immigration attorneys, job-placement agencies, and rural schools and hospitals.
“If used correctly, the H program would be great to expand,” said Duncan Cross, the marketing director for a Kennesaw biotech company that employs eight or nine H-1B workers. “An entrepreneur — indicative of an H profile — is somebody comfortable leaving home and coming to America to chase their dream. They’re often big risk-takers. Young tech firms, in particular, can benefit from more folks with those qualifications.”
Last week’s well-publicized push to overhaul the nation’s immigration policy, putting 11 million illegal immigrants on a potential path to citizenship, garnered most of the attention and controversy. Overshadowed, yet substantial, was the introduction a day later of legislation by U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and others to nearly double the number of H-1B visas granted annually.
Obama, in a speech Tuesday in Nevada, signaled his support for the legislation by linking talented foreigners to jobs in “fields of the future, like engineering and computer science.”
In addition to raising the H-1B quota, the Immigration Innovation Act of 2013 would entirely remove the visa cap for foreign graduates with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The 65,000 visas currently offered typically get snapped up within days or weeks of the de-facto filing date of April 1, leaving many U.S. businesses unable to get workers with visas. Last year, for example, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security received 350,000 applications. Visa holders overwhelmingly come from India and China.
Charles Kuck, an Atlanta immigration attorney, doesn’t expect the country to ever reach the 300,000-visa limit. If the economy again slows, the legislation requires an automatic reduction in visas to, ostensibly, safeguard U.S. workers.
The legislation “will make sure that the right number of employers get the right number of employees when they need them,” Kuck said. “They shouldn’t have to wait a year to get somebody onboard, which is typically what happens. There is a huge, pent-up demand out there.”
Renmatix, with offices in Kennesaw and Pennsylvania, began hiring research scientists and process engineers from India, Russia, China and Brazil in 2008. Cross, the marketing director, acknowledged that U.S. workers are qualified to do the work, but Renmatix couldn’t find technical experts willing to relocate or join a young company.
H-1B “allows us to fill gaps that we would otherwise struggle to staff,” Cross said.
“Any bottleneck would really interrupt our progress,” he said. “The H program has been a source of talent that allows us to move more quickly than we would otherwise.”
The visa program currently allows employers to temporarily hire foreigners for “specialty occupations or as fashion models of distinguished merit and ability,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor. A bachelor’s degree is a minimum requirement. The visas last for three years but can be reissued for another three years.
Atlanta trails only New York, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco and San Jose in H-1B workers, according to the Labor Department. The average salary for them in Atlanta: $72,064.
Companies large — Coca-Cola, Tata Consultancy, SunTrust — and small — Renmatix, VisionSoft, Global Teachers Research and Resources — employ H-1B workers in Atlanta and beyond. Universities, including Emory and Georgia Tech, hire them as professors and researchers.
Safeguards to protect U.S. workers are mandated by law. Companies must pay similar wages to visa applicants and U.S. workers. The employer cannot fire any similarly employed U.S. worker within 90 days of applying for an H-1B visa. And the employer must take “good faith steps to recruit U.S. workers” for the position, according to the Labor Department.
Critics say companies want to expand the program to keep wages low.
“If you make a glut of workers, that holds down wages,” said Norman Matloff, a computer science professor in California who writes about immigration. “Plus, younger people cost less than older people — the vast majority of H-1Bs are young — not just in wages, but in benefits, too. It gives employers a huge pool of young workers to choose from instead of hiring older Americans.”
Matloff, who teaches at the University of California, Davis, also dismisses reports that the U.S. faces a shortage of engineers and scientists, as visa proponents insist. The Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, concurs with Matloff.
“I have never advocated eliminating the H-1B program, but it is hugely abused across the board, including by big-name firms,” he said. “It’s badly in need of repair. Proposals to expand the program are dead wrong.”
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