GAO study cites potential abuse of H-1B visas
By Terry Costlow, EE Times
Sep 15, 2000 (4:22 PM)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000915S0043


WASHINGTON - Citing a potential for abuse in the H-1B visa program, the
General Accounting Office (GAO) urged more power for the Department of Labor
to monitor employer compliance.


"At the minimum," the congressional watchdog agency said, the Labor
Department needs subpoena power to obtain employers' records during
investigations of H-1B irregularities. The department should also have
authority to perform baseline evaluations of employers' compliance and to
conduct case-by-case investigations when noncompliance is suspected.


The GAO urged the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which administers
the program, to expand its adjudication procedures, giving employees better
ways to get information needed to document adherence to standard procedures.
Computer systems and procedures should also be improved to avert a repeat of
last year, when the INS issued more visas than the law allowed.


The H-1B program provides temporary visas for a fixed number of foreign
"specialty workers," including those in the high-tech arena. Industry
largely supports the program, saying it provides engineering skills it might
not otherwise find; some rank-and-file engineers and their representatives
have charged that it threatens U.S. workers.


The GAO also suggested that Labor streamline application procedures to let
employers handle them more efficiently. The INS said that it has implemented
some revisions, such as providing more standardization for adjudication.


The study was undertaken to provide information on the H-1B program's
implementation and implications for the American work force. That included
an examination of the types of jobs H-1Bs are filling, how adequately the
visa rules are being enforced and the efforts to improve IT skills in the
American work force. The GAO report was not concerned with the current
debate over whether the H-1B quota should be raised from 115,000 per year to
200,000.


The GAO found that delays and administrative problems have made it difficult
for employers to process paperwork. The Labor Department can review
applications "only for completeness and obvious inaccuracies. It cannot
evaluate other types of information, regardless of how questionable it may
appear," the report said.


Calling the program "vulnerable to abuse," the report also noted that there
is no way to verify whether employers provide the correct data for wages and
other working conditions. Employers are required to pay prevailing wages,
but that data can be pulled from nearly any source, the GAO said. This
aspect of the study supports the contention of many critics of the program,
who charge that companies hire H1-Bs because they work for less than
American citizens.


The report looked at Immigration and Naturalization Service data for 1999.
It showed that about 60 percent of the new workers that year were involved
in IT. Their median salary was $45,000 and their median age was 28. Overall,
almost half were from India, and many were already here when they applied
for a visa.


In the IT-related occupations, the H-1B workers were less likely to have an
advanced degree. They were also more likely to be younger and from India.
They were also less likely to be in the country than workers in the non-IT
category, where 40 percent were already in the United States before getting
their H-1B visa.


A primary area of potential abuse comes in wages paid and reported. The
Labor Department has no way to confirm that prevailing wages are being paid.
Although that was a big concern for GAO investigators, there is little hard
evidence that problems exist.


Among the reasons for that are the scant rules for monitoring the H-1Bs,
either from the individual or corporate side. In 1999, only 135 complaints
about wages were received even though 137,000 visas were processed that
year. Only one employer has been established as a willful violator. However,
the GAO suggested that workers are reluctant to complain since they depend
on employers to let them stay here.


But the INS said that some of the GAO's suggestions would further clog up
the process.