H1-B
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced April 27, 2009, that it has only receive about 45,000 of the 65,000 H-1B non-immigrant visa petitions needed to meet the fiscal year (FY) 2010 cap (beginning October 1, 2009). This represents approximately 3,000 additional filings since USCIS' April 8 announcement and means that new H-1B petitions may still be filed. This is the first time in many years that the cap for H-1B nonimmigrant visa petitions was not hit in the initial five-day filing period. USCIS began accepting petitions on April 1.
The agency has received approximately 20,000 H1-B petitions for aliens eligible for the advanced degree exemption. However, USCIS continues to accept advanced degree petitions since experience has shown that not all petitions received are approvable. Congress mandated that the first 20,000 of these types of petitions are exempt from any fiscal year cap on available H-1B visas.
Once the relevant H-1B cap has been met, USCIS will issue an update to advise the public that, as of a certain date (the "final receipt date"), the respective FY 2010 H-1B caps have been met. The final receipt date will be based on the date USCIS physically receives the petition, not the date that the petition is postmarked. The date or dates USCIS informs the public that the respective caps have been reached may differ from the actual final receipt date. To ensure a fair system, USCIS may randomly select the number of petitions required to reach the numerical limit from the petitions received as of the final receipt date (this would be done subject to a lottery). USCIS will reject cap subject petitions that are not selected, as well as those received after the final receipt date.
For cases filed for premium processing during the initial five-day filing window, the 15-day premium processing period began April 7. For cases filed for premium processing after the filing window, the premium processing period begins on the date USCIS takes physical possession of the petition. USCIS will provide regular updates on the processing of FY 2010 H-1B petitions.
Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap do not count towards the congressionally mandated H-1B cap. Accordingly, USCIS will continue to process petitions filed to:
- Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States
- Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers
- Allow current H-1B workers to change employers
- Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position
- Updates on the cap count can be found on the USCIS' website: http://www.uscis.gov/h-1b_count.
H1-B visas are given to US companies seeking to hire nonimmigrant aliens in specialty occupations of distinguished merit and ability when such workers are in limited quantities in the United States. A specialty occupation requires the theoretical and practical application of a body of specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or the equivalent in the specific specialty (e.g., sciences, medicine and health care, education, biotechnology and business specialties, etc). The numerical limitation on H-1B petitions for fiscal year 2010 is 65,000. Additionally, the first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of aliens who have earned a US masters' degree or higher are exempt from the fiscal year cap. Holders of these visas can stay in the United States for up to six years.
New telecom entrant Swan Telecom is set to outsource its IT and back office functions to Tech Mahindra and award a network equipment deal to Ericsson together in a transaction worth about $250 million. The deal, the first of its kind in the telecom outsourcing sector, is aimed at bringing down operational costs and compete more effectively with incumbents such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications (RCOM).
"Swan has decided to retain the computer hardware part, and decided to bundle its IT and network management contract in order to avoid a high value outsourcing deal and retain many of these functions in-house," said a person familiar with the matter on conditions of anonymity.
Traditionally, telcos such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Unitech Wireless and Aircel have outsourced their entire IT and network infrastructure to vendors as separate contracts. However, Swan plans to retain the control of its computer hardware systems, and will make Ericsson responsible for the entire network with an IT vendor working in tandem for application development, maintenance and integration work. For instance, IBM manages Bharti Airtel's entire outsourcing of IT, back office and network management along with Nortel and Ericsson.
Cost cutting
Japan's Panasonic Corp plans to cut the annual pay of its president and chairman in the current business year by 30 per cent to take responsibility for the company's projected financial deficit in fiscal 2009, company sources said today.
The pay cuts will target president Fumio Otsubo and chairman Kunio Nakamura, and other board members will see their pay slashed 20 per cent, they said.
The Japanese electronics giant incurred a group net loss of 378.96 billion yen in fiscal 2008, its first deficit in six years, and is also expecting a second straight annual net loss totaling 195 billion yen for fiscal 2009.
Panasonic, formerly Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, had already cut remuneration for board members between 10 to 20 per cent and for those on managerial positions by five per cent since February due to the deterioration of its corporate performance.
Further top management pay cuts are part of the electronics maker's restructuring efforts that include cutting 15,000 jobs and closing a total of 40 production facilities worldwide by the end of fiscal 2009.
H1-B
Once the most sought after H-1B American work visa is still having nearly 20,000 slots open seven weeks after the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) started receiving applications for the financial year 2010 beginning October this year.
The USCIS yesterday said it has so far received approximately 45,500 H-1B petitions counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap. As such, the USCIS would continue to accept petitions subject to till the cap is reached.
This is in contrast of the previous few years when the USCIS had to resort to computerised draw of lots as it received petitions outnumbering several times more than the Congressional mandated cap of 65,000 within the first few days after it started receiving H-1B applications.
USCIS said it has received approximately 20,000 petitions for the advanced degrees category. However, it would continue to accept advanced degree petitions since experience has shown that not all petitions received are approvable, the USCIS said in a statement.
Congress mandated that the first 20,000 of these types of petitions are exempt from any fiscal year cap on available H-1B visas.
new openings
Global majors like Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google may have decided to trim their workforce worldwide to cope with the economic turmoil,but these entities do have openings in India.
Interestingly, the companies are cutting jobs in India too, even as they have hiring plans in the country.
For instance, software giant Microsoft recently said it would create employment opportunities in tune with the growth of the Indian economy.
The announcement came from its Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer amid the firm proceeding with 5,000 job cuts worldwide, including 55 employees in India. The workforce reduction in the country would be completed in the next 18 months.
Few months ago, search engine giant Google unveiled plans of trimming as many as 200 jobs in sales and marketing operations worldwide. Nonetheless, the firm is hiring for about 20 positions in engineering operations, finance and software engineering, among others.
Internet entity Yahoo! too would be slashing its employee strength as part of its efforts to bring down costs. At the same time, the company has over 100 vacancies in India, according to its website.
Steve Ballmer noted that Microsoft would continue to hire and create employment opportunities in line with the recovery and growth of the Indian economy.
"We had said that we would lay off about 5,000 people. We are still filling other jobs. We are mostly through that process globally and there is still some work to do.
"... There are areas where we are continuing to add people. As I said, these are global additions, so it is a little hard to separate our work globally from our work in India," he said.
Yahoo! recently said in a statement it would be cutting as many as 700 jobs, representing nearly five per cent of its worldwide headcount, and has given pink slips to around 60 employees at its R&D centre in Bangalore, India.
Still it is hiring for over 100 positions in the country. This month alone the company posted an offering of 10 vacancies, according to information available with Yahoo's website.
According to its website, Google has over 20 job openings in different areas such as advertising sales and enterprise, engineering operations, finance, human resources and software engineering.
India, which is one of the largest locations for Google outside the US, has different positions at its offices in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Gurgaon.
Meanwhile, in a sign that financial crisis is hitting the search engine giant also, Google would be reducing its headcount by 200 employees.
Layoffs in USA
The 111-year-old talent agency Monday laid off more than 120 people, or about 15% of its staff, in preparation for its pending merger with competitor Endeavor. About 40 of the affected employees were agents, and the rest were support staff.
The layoffs, which have been expected since the two companies agreed to join forces late last month, hit the motion picture and television talent and literary departments the hardest. Those departments have been significantly downsized in anticipation of Endeavor's more successful groups taking control.
