The Rediff US Special/Aseem Chhabra
Until early last year, the new economy was booming.
Investors -- especially small-time investors -- were pouring their hard earned life savings into stocks of companies with names like Amazon.com, AOL, Cisco, Intel and Sun Microsystems.
And to support this booming new economy, planes loads of H-1B visa workers were arriving in the Silicon Valley from foreign countries -- most notably from India.
That was until last year. Then the negative news started to emerge. Dot-coms -- large and small -- started to go bust. And lately major corporations that rely on H-1B workers -- including Cisco, Intel and Motorola -- have announced hiring freezes or layoffs.
Last year the US Congress increased the annual quota of H-1B visas (from 115,000 to 195,000) for high tech employees from overseas. Now reports of a slowdown in the utility of H-1B workers have been corroborated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"In general we are no where near the cap for 2001," Eyleen Schmidt, spokesperson for the INS told rediff.com.
In the midst of the downturn, four H-1B visa workers talked to rediff.com about their experiences and how they are struggling to survive.
At their request, the names of the four have been changed to protect their identity. They also declined to identify the names of their current or past employers.
Sudhir Sanyal
Sudhir Sanyal and his wife Malini arrive in the US in 1999. He is on a F1 student visa and she is an H-1B worker. A year later, in June 2000, Sudhir received his practical training visa (OPT) and a job offer in the supply chain management field.
"With OPT you can work for any company and switch too. It's more like a green card," 28-year old Sudhir said from his home in Santa Clara, California. "But still my company decided to sponsor me for an H-1B, I guess to avoid all the hassles of the cap."
His H-1B visa got approved on Oct 1, 2000. Three weeks later, he got laid off.
"They said it had to do with business conditions," Sudhir says. "They started cutting back and I was let go since I had only recently joined. Then they cut back a few other positions. By getting the H-1B, I got screwed, since my OPT was canceled. So I was not on a legal status. I was kind of out of status."
Fortunately, his wife was on an H-1B visa. He consulted a few immigration attorneys and was advised to go back to India to get the H4 (spouse of an H-1B) visa. It would take him a lot longer to acquire the visa in the US, the attorneys told him. So in December 2000, the Sanyals visited India to apply for Sudhir's H4 visa.
Before they boarded the plane, they got one piece of good news. Another company in Santa Clara had offered Sudhir a position with a promise to apply for an H-1B visa.
The Sanyals returned in January with an H4 visa stamped on Sudhir's passport. Then in February he received some more bad news -- a call from the second company, saying that things has changed in their organization and they were canceling the job offer.
"We came very close to leaving for good." Sudhir says. "It's been very difficult. We have made our home here, purchased all this furniture. We have two cars. She has a (Toyota) Corolla, I have a (Nissan) Pathfinder."
He laughs when asked whether he and his 25 year-old wife have any children: "We cannot take that step at this time. That would kill us."
He now sits at home with an H4 visa. He cannot work. There is another offer on the table, but he does not expect the H-1B to be approved before May or June. That would be seven to eight months from the time he got laid off from his first job.
What is it like sitting and waiting at home?
"We stay in the Silicon Valley where the rents are way, way too much," Sudhir says. "My wife is earning, so we get by OK. But we are eating into our savings. It's frustrating. You learn so many things and then I am sitting at home. It's tough."
Narayan Krishnan
Four years ago, Narayan Krishnan was recruited in New Delhi by a "body shop" -- industry parlance for a recruiting company that markets its consultants to other sub-contractors.
"You have a lot of walk-in interviews there." Narayan, 29, says from his home in the Silicon Valley. "Coming to the US is a craze there. But when you reach here, you realize that you were probably better off in India."
His first six months in southern California were not easy. The "body shop" was able to place him on a temporary assignment, but then suggested that Narayan try his luck with another company on the East Coast.
"I was flown to the East Coast, but then that "body shopper" didn't give me medical insurance, although it had been promised before." Narayan returned to the West Coast.
Then last fall, Narayan had another unnerving experience with three companies he identities as "A," "B" and "C".
He was hired by a consulting Company A to work on projects for the client B. In December 2000, he got an offer from Company C and so he informed Company A that he wanted to quit. Meanwhile, when Company B realized that Narayan was about to quit, they made him a counter offer, which he politely rejected.
His last working day at Company B, as an employee of A, was January 22. Three days earlier, while on his lunch break, he received a call from company C's director of human resources. The message was simple -- due to the current economic climate, they had changed their priorities and had imposed a hiring freeze. The offer was being withdrawn.
One slight saving grace -- Company C did offer him severance for one month, although he had not worked with them for a single day.
"I had three days to quit and I said 'I am on H-1B, and how do you expect me to find a job in three days?'"
Narayan seems to understand Company C's position. "I would say this is a normal situation.," he says. "If my business was going down, I would start to lay off. It always hurts everyone, regardless of whether you are an H-1B, a citizen or a green card holder. It's quite normal, though it is hard on the person who loses the job. I rejected company B's offer and A was not too pleased with me."
Company C also offered to place Narayan on a visitor's visa and help him look for a job, to which he responded: "Staying in this country requires a lot of money, I can't shell money out of my pocket without a salary."
Narayan turned to some of his contacts in the Silicon Valley, and was fortunate to land with another job offer within ten days -- the INS imposed required waiting time period before his status could potentially become "illegal". He was also able to push his last working day with Companies A and B to the end of January.
"Until the day I got the new job offer, those days were like hell in my life," Narayan recalls. "You know how INS works. I would wake up at two in the morning and watch TV. I couldn't call my family in India. They would be worried. So I kept it confined to myself and my wife."
Returning to India was not an option he considered. If nothing else had worked he could have joined another "body shop."
"Some of them say -- 'You pay us, we file for your H-1B and you find your own job. Then whatever you make, you give us 30 per cent of your wages.'"
He says, "I got lucky. But I know how difficult it is for anyone on an H-1B visa, who gets laid off. Ten days is not enough (to switch jobs). From the human point of view the INS should give 45 days at least."
Rizwan Zaidi
Thirty-one year old Rizwan Zaidi is a native of Lahore, Pakistan. He is married and has a four year-old child. Unlike numerous other H1-B workers, Rizwan's employer in New Jersey has sponsored him for a permanent resident status and he is a year and half into the process.
But he is still haunted by the stress and fear of uncertainty that impacts H-1B workers.
"It has been almost 10 years since I left Lahore," he says. "I couldn't go back when my father passed away. I have given so much to this country. I am paying taxes. With the blessing of God nothing is happening to my company, but the fear every day is hurting our health."
There are plans to buy a house. But the decision has been postponed until Rizwan gets his green card. The green card does not guarantee a smoother life, he says, but at least he will not have to worry about being out of status.
"I choose not to stay in this country, for even one second as an illegal, because that is not me," he says. "I see there is so much opportunity here. I still have a lot to learn, all of which unfortunately I won't get back home."
Last week he watched a news report on CBS Evening News. A group of recently laid-off Americans were celebrating a "pink slip" party, instead of joining the unemployment line.
"They said 'Let's celebrate and take it easy for a while,'" Rizwan says. "They were all citizens. For us, if anything like that happens, we will be forced to leave."
"A person like me, I have so many things, my apartment, my belongings..." he lets his thoughts wonder.
Kiran Govind
Kiran Govind got a green card in October 2000, but right now he is unemployed.
Once his yearly contact ended in December 2000, he left his former employer in New Jersey, an American-owned recruiting firm that would place him on temporary assignments. Although a "full-time" employee, the employer made Kiran sign annual contracts, with small merit increases.
The company kept switching him from one position to another. And while he was on the "bench", in between assignments, they would not pay him, treating him like an hourly worker.
"The bench concept is that if you are an hourly worker then your hourly wages are high," Kiran, 42, says, "So when you are on bench you are covered. But I was supposed to be a full-time employee."
"The main reason they want to take you out (switch assignments) is that they can bring another person to that position. And if you have one year of experience, they can market you at a higher rate elsewhere."
There were other problems. During the major blizzard in March 1996, Kiran was stranded at home, in the middle of New Jersey, not able to report to work for four days. After two days his wages were cut.
"They paid me for major holidays as they should to any full-time employee," he says. "But when it came to snow, I was always in fear, 'Oh what happens if it snows more than two days.'"
Kiran stayed with the company for seven years, while on H-1B and later as he was being sponsored for a green card.
"I have held several different kinds of positions. Now I have a green card, I want to go and get work. I meet interviewers at career fairs and I get the same question all the time -- ' Do you have three years of experience in Java or C++?'"
He tells them that he has worked on C++ projects -- for a year in 1993, for six months in 1995, and then again for a year a half starting in 1999. The response he gets is that most companies want three continuous years of experience, which unfortunately he lacks.
"My plight is that I wanted a green card, so I had to work for this particular employer," he says. "The reality is that people on H-1B do not have a career. We work for six years with H-1B visas, we are master of none and jack of all trades. Our careers are screwed. And then with a green card we apply for a job, they look upon us as entry level. Well, maybe slightly better than entry level, because we do have some experience."
Design: Dominic Xavier
