The State Department released the October 2020 Visa Bulletin today which shows that H-1B workers from India who filed for Green Cards before Jan. 1st, 2015 under the EB-3 category (ordinary workers), are now eligible to file for EAD cards.uscis.gov/green-card/gre…
The EO that @realDonaldTrump had signed suspending immigrant visas to certain family based categories, those unused visas are being cycled to the employment-based categories. Hence, a meaningless EO to protect American workers.
In the past, @USCIS did not have to adhere to the Filing chart published by the State Dept. In other words, they didn't have to follow through with issuing EAD cards. The fact that USCIS has published the Filing chart on their website suggests certain H-1Bs can file for EAD cards
The EAD is a work permit card that is often called a "Green Card Lite". Not only does the H-1B worker get the EAD, but so do their spouses & children (under the age of 21). It allows free movement to switch employers, and visa-free travel entering the US.
As the State Department has shared, there is "rapid forward movement" for Indian & Chinese nationals to receive employment-based Green Cards. This is because the Trump admin is cycling unused Family-based Green Cards to the employment-based category. More, permanent residents!
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If you want to understand how the law lets employers legally pay H‑1B workers less than market wages and how that harms American workers, our latest Substack explains it.
🧵 THREAD:
At the heart of this is the Labor Condition Application (LCA), a brief form employers submit to @USDOL before hiring H‑1B workers.
It’s meant to protect local wage standards and keep Americans from being undercut. In practice, it’s a rubber‑stamp process with no real scrutiny.
The system relies on employers to truthfully select wage levels based on an H‑1B worker’s skills and experience. But because the DOL can’t verify that information, employers exploit this asymmetry, labeling skilled roles as entry‑level to pay lower wages:
1/ While American engineering graduates struggle with stagnant wages and limited job opportunities, they face an additional challenge that receives insufficient attention: intense competition from foreign guest workers who are systematically imported to fill engineering positions.
The scope of this competition is staggering. In 2023, while America graduated 137,237 citizen engineers with bachelor's or master's degrees, the federal government simultaneously approved at least 33,836 foreign guest workers with engineering backgrounds through just three major guest worker programs.
NYT: “… tariffs reduce trade by making goods more expensive; they don’t affect services or offshoring, the practice of hiring workers overseas… Indian workers are doing the kind of jobs that Americans workers envy — for American companies.”
Major American tech companies, along with leading American banks, proudly highlight their large offices in India and remain unconcerned about Trump’s tariffs. They believe his focus is mainly on the $46 billion trade deficit, rather than on the offshoring of professional jobs.
Why are American companies offshoring to India? It’s for cheap labor of course, which corporate admits saves costs. But that doesn’t stop reporter @travelli from pushing the debunked “labor shortage” propaganda. Imagine claiming this amid mass tech layoffs in the U.S. right now.
🧵You thought the H-1B visa was bad? Wait until you hear about the largest guest worker program killing jobs for new American college grads—the Optional Practical Training (OPT):
• No caps
• Employers get payroll tax exemptions
• No wage requirements
@NumbersUSA explains:
OPT was originally a 1-year work permit for international students graduating from U.S. colleges to gain U.S. work experience to take back to their home countries. It was never meant as a permanent immigration pathway, but rather a short-term opportunity for skill development
OPT was intended as a short-term work permit, but it evolved into a tool to secure U.S. jobs and a pathway to for securing long-term work visas like the H-1B. Employers saw OPT workers as desperate, willing to do anything for H-1B sponsorship before their permit expired.
A federal investigation is underway after a senior official from @GovKathyHochul’s office flagged fraud involving dozens of state-contracted programming "consultants" who falsified their educational credentials.
The suspects: H-1B visa workers from India hired by outsourcing firms.
A tech recruiter claims Indian students are falsifying bank statements and transcripts to get visas, with some paying others to attend job interviews for them. Once hired, they have someone in India do all the work because they are incapable of doing the work themselves.
An Indian citizen charged for receiving kickbacks for hiring fraudsters is pleading with U.S. authorities for his Green Card petition to proceed while his criminal case is pending in court. This highlights the massive fraud contributing to the Green Card backlog for Indians.