August 12th, 2009
Use H-1B or L-1 workers? Prepare for a Federal audit!
Audits for firms sponsoring L-1 and H-1B Visa
Well, looks like the Feds are going to get around to auditing the firms that use L-1 and H-1B visas. Specifically, they’ll be verifying that the people who applied for these permits are who they purport themselves to be, that they are working where they said they would be and that their employers are paying them correctly (i.e., prevailing market wages). If the applicants and their sponsors did things by the book, there should be no surprises or problems.
However, these audits are occurring because there has been fraud in the visa process at some firms. If some frauds have been found without audits, I’ll bet more will be discovered now.
According to an InfoWorld piece
21% of visa petitions violate regulations/program rules.
Currently, the H-1B program is not getting the over-subscribed numbers of applicants as in past years. The economy is the key to this drop off. But, the program will regain popularity once the economy recovers.
When it does, a visa program that is fairly administered and legitimately used would benefit all of those who participate within it. If we have such a program, we cannot allow firms to offer sub-market pay to those who participate in the plan. This depresses wages for domestic workers and is grossly unfair to those non-citizen workers. Fraud is always wrong and those who try to justify it are skirting criminality.
Are these audits a bad thing? No. Are they overdue? Yes. Will new abuses be exposed to the bright light of day? Probably.
This blog explores the intersection set between services and technology. If it impacts either space, it will be covered here. Brian Sommer is a former Accenture partner. He did an 18-year tour of duty there and ran three small practice units (Finance Center of Excellence, HR Center of Excellence and Software Intelligence). He’s sold service projects in almost every continent and remains just as current on both services and technology today as ever before. Brian is currently CEO of TechVentive, a strategy consultancy servicing technology providers, and a research analyst with Vital Analysis. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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