US Mission to eliminate waiting period for visa interviews (India)

[OhioChick]

(Times of India)

5 Oct, 2006 1601hrs ISTPTI ]
NEW DELHI: Indians bound for America can now expect to face lesser procedural hassles, with the US Embassy mobilising additional resources to eliminate by the year-end the waiting period for visa interviews which at present goes up to six months. The US Mission is also working to expand its Business Executive Programme (BEP) under which visas of company employees are processed on priority basis.

This will involve expansion of the list of companies entitled for the facility. "We are sensitive to the inconvenience and long waits for appointments which have characterised our visa processing system in recent months," US Ambassador David C Mulford told reporters after inaugurating new visa appointment system at the Embassy in New Delhi.

A similar system, under which the applicants waitlisted for the visa appointments can advance their appointments, has been initiated in American Consulates General in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Acknowledging that the prolonged waiting period was giving a "bad name" to the US, Mulford said, "We have made a Mission-wide commitment to reduce the waiting time for a visa appointment, with the goal of eliminating this waiting period altogether."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2097179.cms

[wakeme2008]

1. Fast Track those Cheap Workers

:grr:

[acmejack]

2. H One Bee!

Jobs Americans Won't Do! Jobs Americans Can't Do! Jobs Americans Won't Do For Nothing! There Are So Many Jobs In America We Need More Workers! Yeah, That's The Ticket, er, Visa!

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

3. I think there's a lot of misinformation about H-1Bs

in my full 7 years of experience in immigration, doing thousands of H-1Bs, I have yet to see one that was being paid at the prevailing wage level (you are required to pay at least 100% of the prevailing wage, demonstrated by salary surveys that are readily available online). All were paid many times more.

In my experience, those visas that were used to replace U.S. workers were not the H-1Bs, but the L-1Bs (intracompany transferees with 'specialized knowledge'). For instance, a company with a subsidiary in India can bring in a limitless amount of workers to the U.S. as long as it can show these workers possess 'specialized knowledge' in proprietary systems, methodologies, etc. Unlike the H-1B, L-1Bs do not have numerical limitations or wage/benefit requirements and attestations.

While USCIS has gotten stricter in adjudicating L-1Bs they are still popularly used.

[wakeme2008]

5. Right a Indian contracting firm comes to the states and

brings over "their employees" and contract them out in the software business. :grr:

In Tampa GTE/DATA(now Verizon) fired 2000 employees around 2000 and replaced them with contractors because contractors were cheaper.

[OhioChick]

6. AT&T...........

AT&T To Cut Hundreds Of U.S. Tech Jobs, Sources Say

AT&T last week proudly trumpeted the fact that it would end arrangements under which it outsources certain customer service functions to low-cost, offshore providers. But company insiders claim the telecom company is shipping out significantly more U.S. jobs than it's bringing back and is set to dramatically increase its use of India-based labor.
AT&T is expanding its relationship with Indian outsourcer Tech Mahindra, which is partly owned by British Telecom, according to sources with knowledge of the company's plans. AT&T plans to drastically reduce the number of U.S.-based contract employees it uses for internal software development, they say. "AT&T is sending out far more jobs than it's bringing back," says an insider in the company's customer operations department. The source requested anonymity, as did another source with knowledge of AT&T's intentions.

An AT&T spokesman confirms the Orlando job cuts, but claims they're not part of a wider offshoring push at AT&T. "We evaluate project by project. If we determine that Tech Mahindra provides an advantage for us in terms of a specific project, then we'll look at that," the spokesman says.

The plan was unveiled to middle management earlier this month by AT&T senior executives. It calls for the company to slash the number of IT contractors in use throughout the United States and send the work to Tech Mahindra's Indian operations. For instance, at least 24 software developers at AT&T's Orlando billing center will be laid off by March as their work is gradually outsourced. The workers' current role is to write the software that lets AT&T customers pay their bills over the Internet.

~snip~ They will be replaced with 24 Tech Mahindra workers, 12 of whom will move temporarily to Orlando for training. The U.S.-based contractors in Orlando are presently earning between $60,000 and $80,000 per year, according to a source. Programmers in India typically earn at least 60% less than their American counterparts.

http://ddj.com/dept/debug/193100354?cid=RSSfeed_DDJ_debugging

[Deja Q]

4. Pathetic. How fucking pathetic. At taxpayer expense too.