Atlanta has high demand for skilled foreign workers

• Employers also file requests when they need to renew the H-1B status of workers who are already here;

• Employers may get their requests approved but decide not to follow through because they no longer need the workers;

• Many workers for whom requests are approved are already working here or graduating from U.S. universities.

Top five cities based on numbers of positions employers requested to fill with H-1B workers for those locations, according to labor condition applications filed in fiscal year 2012.

New York City, 44,389

Houston, 21,167

Atlanta, 15,856

San Jose, 14,612

Chicago, 13,535

Top five employers based on numbers of positions they requested to fill with H-1B workers for Georgia work locations, according to labor condition applications filed in fiscal year 2012.

Patni Americas Inc. (Now called iGATE Americas Inc.), 2,165

Syntel Inc., 1,640

Wipro Limited, 1,616

Infosys, 1,611

Syntel Consulting Inc. (subsidiary of Syntel Inc.), 1,455

Top five occupations based on numbers of positions employers requested to fill with H-1B workers at Georgia work locations, according to labor condition applications filed in fiscal year 2012.

Computer Systems Analyst, 8,596

Computer Programmers, 6,428

Software Developers, Applications 2,279

Computer and Information Systems Managers, 1,903

All Other Computer-related Occupations, 1,807

What Georgians are saying about the debate in Congress over expanding the H-1B program:

“At a time of high unemployment and under-employment, why should Congress greatly increase the number of H-1B visas for foreign workers to compete with Americans from the lowest to the highest education levels? Why isn’t putting more Americans to work the top priority of Congress?”

Phil Kent, a member of Georgia’s Immigration Enforcement Review Board and the national spokesman for Americans for Immigration Control.

“I would expand it… Our country is a service economy and you don’t run a service economy without people. People are the resource in this.”

Jay Solomon, an Atlanta-area immigration attorney, who helps employers with the H-1B program.

Atlanta’s demand for skilled foreign workers is among the highest in the nation, and many of them are working for well-known companies and for all levels of government, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of federal visa applications shows.

In the 2012 fiscal year, employers asked the federal government for permission to employ skilled foreign workers for 15,856 positions in Atlanta. The U.S. Labor Department approved the vast majority of them. Only New York and Houston had more requests.

The requests, filed under the H-1B program and formally called “labor condition applications,” don’t necessarily equate to individual people. Here’s one reason why: An employer must file a new request each time it wants to transfer a worker to a new work location, even within the same state.

The government doesn’t track how many H-1B workers end up in each city. But the sheer volume of applications reflects strong demand in Atlanta.

H-1B visas are reserved for foreigners who can work temporarily in specialty fields that require some level of theoretical or technical expertise.

Monday, officials started accepting applications for H-1B workers for fiscal year 2014. By law, the number issued nationwide each year is capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for foreign citizens who have received a graduate degree from a U.S. school. Universities and government research organizations fall outside the visa cap.

Applications are pouring in so fast that the government expects to stop taking them by Friday. Congress is now debating whether more H-1B visas should be made available as part of a major overhaul of the nation’s immigration system.

Supporters of expanding the program say employers can’t always find U.S. citizens with the right skills, specifically in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. They say these foreign workers will help boost Georgia’s economy.

Jonathan Johnson, acting CEO of online discount retailer Overstock.com, said he supports lifting or eliminating the H-1B visa cap. His Salt Lake City-based company employs these guest workers as software developers. The company has numerous customers in Georgia and ships many of its orders through UPS, which is headquartered in Atlanta.

H-1B workers, Johnson said, “are not taking American jobs when they stay here. They are creating American jobs. For us, it seems like a no-brainer to increase this [H-1B visa] cap or do away with the cap so that the economy grows and more workers are hired in general.”

Critics argue the program depresses American wages and argue these jobs should go to U.S. citizens, particularly amid high unemployment. A 2011 Government Accountability Office report said officials could not readily say how many H-1B workers were in the U.S. or how many stay after their visas expire, leaving the program vulnerable to fraud and abuse.

John Miano, founder of the New Jersey-based Programmers Guild – which represents information technology workers — accused employers of using the program to get rid of American workers and hire cheap foreign labor.

“It’s a program that has absolutely zero popularity among the public. Yet, the Congress dances to it because that is what big money tells them to do,” said Miano, a former computer programmer turned lawyer. “This is just a cesspool of a program.”

U.S. Labor Department records show many prominent Atlanta-area companies have made use of the program, including Coca-Cola, Home Depot and UPS. Perhaps not surprisingly, foreigners with computer skills are the most sought after in Atlanta — specifically systems analysts, computer programmers and software developers.

But employers have also sought to temporarily hire foreigners for many more common jobs, the newspaper’s analysis shows. Among them are accountants, dentists, physical therapists, school teachers and sales managers.

Further, many local, state and federal taxpayer-funded organizations requested foreign workers through the program last fiscal year, including state universities and public school systems. Among them:

• Georgia Tech now employs 164 H-1B workers. Last fiscal year, the university submitted scores of requests for such workers, including engineers, postdoctoral fellows, professors and researchers. The university issued a statement saying the majority of its H-1B workers are from the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and that many are graduates of Georgia Tech or other U.S. universities.

“Our goal is to hire the finest quality faculty possible and most of our employees are U.S. citizens,” the university said. “H-1B’s represent only a small percentage of GT’s work force, i.e. 164 H-1Bs out of over 7,000 employees.”

• The Cobb County public school system employs 24 workers through the H-1B program. A school system spokesman said those workers have helped bridge a “critical shortage of teachers in specific fields,” including special education, English to Speakers of Other Languages, foreign languages, math and science.

• The Georgia Office for Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner employs an H-1B worker in a supervisory position. Among other things, the Albanian native, who graduated from Boston University with master’s degrees in economics and business administration, is responsible for applications from insurance companies seeking to do business in Georgia.

• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employs scientists from 29 countries through the program.

“Most of these scientists have very specialized experience working with organisms that might be endemic to their country,” the CDC said, “or they are scientists with specialized laboratory experience, or they may be scientists receiving training here with the intent to take that training back to their native country to implement.”

Once the Labor Department certifies an application for an H-1B worker, the employer must file a petition with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, though an employer may choose not to do this if it no longer needs the worker. The U.S. State Department issues visas for any foreigners who need to enter the country to work through the H-1B program.

India is the leading country of origin for H-1B workers, State Department records show. The 29-county Atlanta census region is home to 27,000 Indian immigrants who are not U.S. citizens, census figures show.

Employers must certify to the Labor Department that they will compensate foreign workers at the same level as U.S. workers in comparable jobs, including benefits.

Critics of the program point to H-1B employers who have not honored that pledge. Three years ago, Smartsoft International, a Suwanee-based computer consulting company, agreed to pay nearly $1 million in back wages and interest to 135 H-1B workers that it was accused of underpaying.

Smartsoft said its dispute with the government resulted from “differing interpretations of highly complex laws and regulations.” The company said it elected to settle the matter to avoid high legal costs.

The program also includes safeguards for U.S. workers. Employers who depend on foreign workers must make good faith efforts to recruit U.S. workers before applying to participate in the program. They are prohibited from displacing similarly employed U.S. workers within 90 days before and after applying.

A bipartisan group of senators led by U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, filed legislation in January to raise the annual H-1B visa cap to 115,000. The bill would allow the cap to rise as high as 300,000 based on certain economic conditions.

Jiangnan Zhu is among Overstock.com’s H-1B workers. The native of China graduated from the University of Utah with a marketing degree. He is now applying for a green card with his employer’s help. Zhu, whose goal is to teach international marketing at a U.S. college, said he agrees with his employer’s position on expanding the H-1B program.

“It’s a shame,” he said. “A lot of foreign students are trained in the U.S. … the sole purpose of foreigners now is to get a degree here and go home and then serve their own countries. The U.S. government could make better use of these people.”