Do H-1B visas help to replace American workers?

It’s that time again, as American companies scramble to obtain special visas to hire skilled workers from outside the United States.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting applications for 85,000 H-1B visas on Wednesday, but they probably won’t last long. In the past two years, the quota was filled in a week, and the immigration service predicted that demand will be equally high this year.

Businesses say the H-1B program enables them to find highly skilled workers who are in short supply in the United States, and they favor a bipartisan plan before Congress that would increase the number of visas issued each year. But critics say the visas are merely being used to replace skilled Americans with foreigners who work for less. These critics oppose any increase in the quota, and call for stricter controls on how visas are issued.

Companies, rather than individuals, apply for H-1B visas, which are valid for anywhere from three to six years. The US government offers 65,000 H-1B visas annually, with an additional 20,000 available for foreigners with advanced academic degrees. While open to any kind of worker with special skills, the visas are mostly used to bring in workers with expertise in the sciences and technology.

“It’s a huge boon for the American economy that smart people from around the world want to come here,” said Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the Partnership for a New American Economy, a New York-based lobbying group that favors expansion of the H-1B program. “It’s one of our great competitive advantages.”

While many companies apply directly for the visas, a large number of them are obtained by outsourcing companies that bring workers in from other countries, then place them in jobs at American firms.

Critics of the H-1B system say these outsourcers merely use the visas to displace well-paid American workers with lower-cost foreign labor. In February, utility company Southern California Edison spawned outrage when it announced it would lay off 400 workers and replace them with outsourced workers from India, provided by Infosys and Tata.

Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, said that while there are legitimate uses for the H-1B, the visas are mainly used to drive down labor costs and boost profits.

“It’s about replacing US workers who are already doing the job with someone who’ll do it more cheaply,” said Eisenbrey. “Their only purpose is cutting wages. it’s not about bringing new skills.”

Eisenbrey called for legislation that would make it illegal to lay off US citizens and replace them with H-1B workers. He also proposed requiring H-1B workers be paid more than the local prevailing wage for the work they do. Eisenbrey said that if the foreign workers possess skills that are impossible to find in the US labor market, companies should be happy to pay the extra money.

Correction: The story has been edited to remove incorrect data about the number of visas issued to firms in Massachusetts, California, and Deloitte Consulting.