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http://www.news-press.com/story/money/2015/06/19/companies-use-foreign-worker-visas-fill-florida-positions/28990941/
Ever heard of Hertz, Chico's FAS, FGCU or Lee Memorial Health System?
Those are among the dozens of companies doing business in Southwest Florida to seek employees through H-1B work visas, with the number of workers on these visas in the region appearing to be in the hundreds.
The visa is designed to be used for foreign workers in "specialty occupations," which require highly specialized knowledge, but that can be misleading.
The occupation list includes architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social science, biotech, medicine and health, education, law, accounting, business specialties, theology, and the arts.
Other recognizable businesses in Southwest Florida to apply for these visas include 21st Century Oncology, Algenol Biofuels, Arthrex and NeoGenomics.
Employers with jobs in the tech sector tend to use these visas more than any other and workers from India more than any other country are using them.
Critics of the H-1B visa say it takes jobs away from American workers, contend outsourcing companies are taking advantage of the system and say that employers are saving money by paying foreign workers lower wages.
The H-1B program was in the news earlier this month, thanks to a story in The New York Times that used Orlando's Disney World as an example of abuses in the system.
About 250 Disney employees were told that they would be laid off. Many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on H-1B visas — those workers were brought in by an India-based outsourcing firm and some Disney employees were required to train their replacements.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, asked for the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the visa program after The New York Times story emerged.
In May, about 35 tech workers at Disney/ABC Television in New York and Burbank, Calif., were told they would be laid off and that during their final weeks would have to train immigrants brought in by an outsourcing firm. That training began, but was suspended. On June 11, the Disney employees learned their layoffs had been canceled.
Infosys Ltd., the India-based outsourcing firm that's the top user of H-1B visas — filing 73,109 applications from fiscal year 2011 to 2014 — is doing business right here in Lee and Collier counties. Infosys has 43 listings when searching for Naples on myvisajobs.com, an employment website for immigrants, and 13 when searching for Fort Myers.
Infosys is one of the companies being investigated by the U.S. government over whether it violated labor and immigration laws by replacing American workers with foreigners using these visas.
Overall, the list of Labor Condition Applications in Southwest Florida for the H-1B program tracked by myvisajobs.com runs the gamut of what one might expect: software developers, analysts and other "tech" jobs, for example, to perhaps the unexpected: Scripps Media (Naples Daily News) hiring a multimedia journalist, Mercato Cinema seeking a president and marketing manager, with FGCU hiring assistant professors in communications and philosophy/religion.
Artis-Naples sought to hire a lecturer and a curatorial research associate and at one point looked to hire a CEO/president using the H-1B visa.
Myvisajobs.com bills itself as the largest and most trusted employment website for immigrants. It uses modeling methods to analyze millions of working visa petitions and job openings from visa sponsors.
Lee County Electric Cooperative, which recently sought a database administrator, power engineer and programmer analyst using H1-B visas, responded to questions via email.
"It has always been a challenge to fill the technical utility-related positions," according to the company. "We are doing our part to provide input to students and educators at the high school and college levels indicating the types of careers that are available and the skills that are needed in the utility industry."
LCEC recruits locally and nationally, and takes advantage of local networking and job-fair opportunities. Positions are posted nationally and national search firms are used, but the cooperative finds the competition fierce. LCEC has had positive experiences with workers here on H-1B visas.
"These workers are dedicated toward doing a good job," according to the utility, adding all LCEC employees are compensated fairly and equitably. Workers here on H-1B visas "are engaged and appreciate the opportunity to work in the utility industry."
Sabra Smith, director of human resources for London Bay Homes, used the program on behalf of Algenol Biofuels while working in a similar HR role for the Fort Myers-based company.
"The way that I always looked at the H-1B visa was when I couldn't fill the position," she said. "I always had an immigration attorney assist me. The application itself was quite complicated. You wanted to make sure you went through every nit and gnat of it."
Smith was surprised to hear about Disney's use of an outsourcing firm to displace American workers, but lamented that there are always going to be some people who don't do the right thing.
"At Algenol, I couldn't find chemical engineers in Southwest Florida. And they're difficult to find in the entire country," she said. "The preference was always that if we could find someone domestically, we would."
Smith felt an obligation to hire a qualified American worker whenever possible, even though the H-1B visa program does not require an employer to make a case that such a worker can't be found.
"If you really want somebody and you think they're the best candidate, the question boils down to, 'Is there someone here locally who can do that job?' she said. "That's the question that should be reviewed when these H-1B applications are filed."
My law firm probably represents a big chunk of companies in Southwest Florida who hire foreign professionals or foreign graduates in the H-1 category," said Casey Wolff, an immigration attorney and partner in the Naples firm of Paulich Slack & Wolff.
Although the cap has fluctuated over the years, "the H-1 was never, ever pegged to supply and demand," Wolff said, noting the demand can vary widely depending on economic conditions. "It was pegged to random numbers supplied by Congress."
As the nation's economy has recovered in recent years, Wolff said Congress should have worked to increase the cap.
"U.S. companies are finding a shortage of U.S. workers," he said. "This is huge. It indicates Congress is ignoring the business community."
Wolff thinks it's surprising that there might be many employers who are not following the program's requirements.
"There's nobody more miserable to deal with than the Department of Labor," he said, contending the agency uses massive bureaucratic checks and balances to protect U.S. jobs and wages. The department, he noted, has to certify an application in order for an employer to have a chance to hire a worker on such a visa.
"One of the magic boxes there is 'we have not laid off any workers to hire these people,' " he said, adding these are sworn statements.
"If Disney did that, why don't they just put a gun to their heads?" he said, adding he knows many of the headhunters at Disney and found the story surprising. "If it did, someone needs to be taken behind the oak tree."
Norma Brenne Henning of the Naples-based Henning Law Firm said filing fees and attorneys fees make for an expensive application process.
"In my experience, it hasn't really happened that an employer applies for one that they don't have a critical need," said Henning, speaking while on her way to an immigration conference in Washington, D.C.
In the case of her clients in Southwest Florida and other parts of the state, she said, employers are hiring foreign workers directly, rather than dealing with an outsourcing firm, as was the case with Disney.
"Attorneys have been watching these job-shop people," Henning said. "I'm amazed how long this has been going on. Why have they not been audited? The system needs an overhaul, I think everybody can agree on that. It's just a matter of how to go about doing it."
History and controversy
Congress created the H-1B program in 1990 to enable U.S. employers to hire temporary, foreign workers in specialty occupations. The law capped the number of H-1B visas issued per fiscal year at 65,000. Since then, the cap has sometimes fluctuated with legislative changes.
The window for new applications opens once a year, on April 1. The window closes once the cap is met for that year — it's now set at 65,000 visas, with 20,000 more reserved for people with advanced degrees. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services won't accept any more new applications until the next April. Successful applicants get their visas on Oct. 1 of the calendar year, the start of the new federal fiscal year.
Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a presidential candidate, has co-sponsored legislation to raise the cap.
While the H-1B visa is not considered a permanent visa, H-1B workers can apply for extensions and pursue permanent residence in the U.S.
Companies eager to hire foreign talent, mostly in the tech sector, and workers hoping for jobs in the U.S. have found ways to game a government lottery used to distribute a limited number of visas each year, according to a story earlier this month in The Wall Street Journal.
Immigration lawyers involved in the process, according to the WSJ story, said they have helped firms file multiple H-1B skilled-worker visa applications for the same person. This gives them a better chance of landing one of the limited number of these visas. Some workers, meanwhile, are accepting offers from multiple employers, each of whom files a petition on their behalf, the lawyers say. Such practices are not illegal, but illustrate a loophole in the system.
An employer seeking to file an H-1B visa petition must first file a Labor Condition Application with the Department of Labor.
For purposes of the program, the department's regulations define a specialty occupation as one that requires theoretical and practical application of a body of specialized knowledge, and attainment of a bachelor's degree or higher degree (or its equivalent) in the specific specialty as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the U.S.
This year, nearly 233,000 foreigners applied for the H-1B visa. That's up from 2014 (172,500 applications) and nearly double the applicants from two years ago (124,000). This year, the cap was reached April 7 and the cap lottery selection process was completed less than a week later.
Have any conversation about the H-1B program, and wages are sure to come up. Critics contend a key reason companies use the program is to save money by paying a foreign worker a smaller wage.
Christopher Westley, an economics professor at FGCU and director of the Regional Economic Development Research Institute, suspects companies are saving money, even with program requirements that foreign workers be paid a "prevailing wage."
"When a firm hires somebody, often the applicant comes with baggage," he said. "Whenever we apply for a job, in our minds we have a reservation wage — we need at least this much. American workers have a higher reservation wage than they have in the past. Many of them have a student loan problem."
Connect with this reporter: email clogan@news-press.com or follow on Twitter @caseylo
Among the recognizable Southwest Florida companies to have applied to use the H-1B visa:
• 21st Century Oncology
• Algenol Biofuels
• Arthrex
• Artis-Naples
• Chico's FAS
• Florida Gulf Coast University
• Florida SouthWestern
State College
• Hertz
• Lee County Electric Cooperative
• Lee Memorial Health System
• Mercato Cinema
• NeoGenomics
• Scripps Media
Ever heard of Hertz, Chico's FAS, FGCU or Lee Memorial Health System?
Those are among the dozens of companies doing business in Southwest Florida to seek employees through H-1B work visas, with the number of workers on these visas in the region appearing to be in the hundreds.
The visa is designed to be used for foreign workers in "specialty occupations," which require highly specialized knowledge, but that can be misleading.
The occupation list includes architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social science, biotech, medicine and health, education, law, accounting, business specialties, theology, and the arts.
Other recognizable businesses in Southwest Florida to apply for these visas include 21st Century Oncology, Algenol Biofuels, Arthrex and NeoGenomics.
Employers with jobs in the tech sector tend to use these visas more than any other and workers from India more than any other country are using them.
Critics of the H-1B visa say it takes jobs away from American workers, contend outsourcing companies are taking advantage of the system and say that employers are saving money by paying foreign workers lower wages.
The H-1B program was in the news earlier this month, thanks to a story in The New York Times that used Orlando's Disney World as an example of abuses in the system.
About 250 Disney employees were told that they would be laid off. Many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on H-1B visas — those workers were brought in by an India-based outsourcing firm and some Disney employees were required to train their replacements.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, asked for the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the visa program after The New York Times story emerged.
In May, about 35 tech workers at Disney/ABC Television in New York and Burbank, Calif., were told they would be laid off and that during their final weeks would have to train immigrants brought in by an outsourcing firm. That training began, but was suspended. On June 11, the Disney employees learned their layoffs had been canceled.
Infosys Ltd., the India-based outsourcing firm that's the top user of H-1B visas — filing 73,109 applications from fiscal year 2011 to 2014 — is doing business right here in Lee and Collier counties. Infosys has 43 listings when searching for Naples on myvisajobs.com, an employment website for immigrants, and 13 when searching for Fort Myers.
Infosys is one of the companies being investigated by the U.S. government over whether it violated labor and immigration laws by replacing American workers with foreigners using these visas.
Overall, the list of Labor Condition Applications in Southwest Florida for the H-1B program tracked by myvisajobs.com runs the gamut of what one might expect: software developers, analysts and other "tech" jobs, for example, to perhaps the unexpected: Scripps Media (Naples Daily News) hiring a multimedia journalist, Mercato Cinema seeking a president and marketing manager, with FGCU hiring assistant professors in communications and philosophy/religion.
Artis-Naples sought to hire a lecturer and a curatorial research associate and at one point looked to hire a CEO/president using the H-1B visa.
Myvisajobs.com bills itself as the largest and most trusted employment website for immigrants. It uses modeling methods to analyze millions of working visa petitions and job openings from visa sponsors.
Lee County Electric Cooperative, which recently sought a database administrator, power engineer and programmer analyst using H1-B visas, responded to questions via email.
"It has always been a challenge to fill the technical utility-related positions," according to the company. "We are doing our part to provide input to students and educators at the high school and college levels indicating the types of careers that are available and the skills that are needed in the utility industry."
LCEC recruits locally and nationally, and takes advantage of local networking and job-fair opportunities. Positions are posted nationally and national search firms are used, but the cooperative finds the competition fierce. LCEC has had positive experiences with workers here on H-1B visas.
"These workers are dedicated toward doing a good job," according to the utility, adding all LCEC employees are compensated fairly and equitably. Workers here on H-1B visas "are engaged and appreciate the opportunity to work in the utility industry."
Sabra Smith, director of human resources for London Bay Homes, used the program on behalf of Algenol Biofuels while working in a similar HR role for the Fort Myers-based company.
"The way that I always looked at the H-1B visa was when I couldn't fill the position," she said. "I always had an immigration attorney assist me. The application itself was quite complicated. You wanted to make sure you went through every nit and gnat of it."
Smith was surprised to hear about Disney's use of an outsourcing firm to displace American workers, but lamented that there are always going to be some people who don't do the right thing.
"At Algenol, I couldn't find chemical engineers in Southwest Florida. And they're difficult to find in the entire country," she said. "The preference was always that if we could find someone domestically, we would."
Smith felt an obligation to hire a qualified American worker whenever possible, even though the H-1B visa program does not require an employer to make a case that such a worker can't be found.
"If you really want somebody and you think they're the best candidate, the question boils down to, 'Is there someone here locally who can do that job?' she said. "That's the question that should be reviewed when these H-1B applications are filed."
My law firm probably represents a big chunk of companies in Southwest Florida who hire foreign professionals or foreign graduates in the H-1 category," said Casey Wolff, an immigration attorney and partner in the Naples firm of Paulich Slack & Wolff.
Although the cap has fluctuated over the years, "the H-1 was never, ever pegged to supply and demand," Wolff said, noting the demand can vary widely depending on economic conditions. "It was pegged to random numbers supplied by Congress."
As the nation's economy has recovered in recent years, Wolff said Congress should have worked to increase the cap.
"U.S. companies are finding a shortage of U.S. workers," he said. "This is huge. It indicates Congress is ignoring the business community."
Wolff thinks it's surprising that there might be many employers who are not following the program's requirements.
"There's nobody more miserable to deal with than the Department of Labor," he said, contending the agency uses massive bureaucratic checks and balances to protect U.S. jobs and wages. The department, he noted, has to certify an application in order for an employer to have a chance to hire a worker on such a visa.
"One of the magic boxes there is 'we have not laid off any workers to hire these people,' " he said, adding these are sworn statements.
"If Disney did that, why don't they just put a gun to their heads?" he said, adding he knows many of the headhunters at Disney and found the story surprising. "If it did, someone needs to be taken behind the oak tree."
Norma Brenne Henning of the Naples-based Henning Law Firm said filing fees and attorneys fees make for an expensive application process.
"In my experience, it hasn't really happened that an employer applies for one that they don't have a critical need," said Henning, speaking while on her way to an immigration conference in Washington, D.C.
In the case of her clients in Southwest Florida and other parts of the state, she said, employers are hiring foreign workers directly, rather than dealing with an outsourcing firm, as was the case with Disney.
"Attorneys have been watching these job-shop people," Henning said. "I'm amazed how long this has been going on. Why have they not been audited? The system needs an overhaul, I think everybody can agree on that. It's just a matter of how to go about doing it."
History and controversy
Congress created the H-1B program in 1990 to enable U.S. employers to hire temporary, foreign workers in specialty occupations. The law capped the number of H-1B visas issued per fiscal year at 65,000. Since then, the cap has sometimes fluctuated with legislative changes.
The window for new applications opens once a year, on April 1. The window closes once the cap is met for that year — it's now set at 65,000 visas, with 20,000 more reserved for people with advanced degrees. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services won't accept any more new applications until the next April. Successful applicants get their visas on Oct. 1 of the calendar year, the start of the new federal fiscal year.
Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a presidential candidate, has co-sponsored legislation to raise the cap.
While the H-1B visa is not considered a permanent visa, H-1B workers can apply for extensions and pursue permanent residence in the U.S.
Companies eager to hire foreign talent, mostly in the tech sector, and workers hoping for jobs in the U.S. have found ways to game a government lottery used to distribute a limited number of visas each year, according to a story earlier this month in The Wall Street Journal.
Immigration lawyers involved in the process, according to the WSJ story, said they have helped firms file multiple H-1B skilled-worker visa applications for the same person. This gives them a better chance of landing one of the limited number of these visas. Some workers, meanwhile, are accepting offers from multiple employers, each of whom files a petition on their behalf, the lawyers say. Such practices are not illegal, but illustrate a loophole in the system.
An employer seeking to file an H-1B visa petition must first file a Labor Condition Application with the Department of Labor.
For purposes of the program, the department's regulations define a specialty occupation as one that requires theoretical and practical application of a body of specialized knowledge, and attainment of a bachelor's degree or higher degree (or its equivalent) in the specific specialty as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the U.S.
This year, nearly 233,000 foreigners applied for the H-1B visa. That's up from 2014 (172,500 applications) and nearly double the applicants from two years ago (124,000). This year, the cap was reached April 7 and the cap lottery selection process was completed less than a week later.
Have any conversation about the H-1B program, and wages are sure to come up. Critics contend a key reason companies use the program is to save money by paying a foreign worker a smaller wage.
Christopher Westley, an economics professor at FGCU and director of the Regional Economic Development Research Institute, suspects companies are saving money, even with program requirements that foreign workers be paid a "prevailing wage."
"When a firm hires somebody, often the applicant comes with baggage," he said. "Whenever we apply for a job, in our minds we have a reservation wage — we need at least this much. American workers have a higher reservation wage than they have in the past. Many of them have a student loan problem."
Connect with this reporter: email clogan@news-press.com or follow on Twitter @caseylo
Among the recognizable Southwest Florida companies to have applied to use the H-1B visa:
• 21st Century Oncology
• Algenol Biofuels
• Arthrex
• Artis-Naples
• Chico's FAS
• Florida Gulf Coast University
• Florida SouthWestern
State College
• Hertz
• Lee County Electric Cooperative
• Lee Memorial Health System
• Mercato Cinema
• NeoGenomics
• Scripps Media
