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Subject: Visa Loophole Seen Costing U.S. Workers Computer Jobs<By Al Kamen<Washington
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 05:41:19 EST
Message-ID: <31.1992Nov9.054120@AmeriCast.com>

Visa Loophole Seen Costing U.S. Workers Computer Jobs<By Al
Kamen<Washington Post Staff Writer=

A loophole in U.S. immigration laws is allowing thousands of
foreign computer programmers and analysts to enter the United
States each year on temporary business visas, enabling them to
take jobs from American workers, according to industry and
government officials.

"We are being crushed by this," said James Schneider, a spokesman
for the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses
(NACCB), a trade group representing 130 companies and about
10,000 workers. "This practice can't validly occur, and yet no
one can figure out why it is still going on."

The problem, according to State Department and immigration offi-
cials, is that a longstanding practice aimed at easing bureau-
cratic obstacles for short business trips is being abused by
foreign companies - often called "job shops" - to bring techni-
cians into this country. And the situation is not limited to the
computer industry, officials said.

"The computer industry is an issue," one State Department offi-
cial said, "but don't forget that's one piece of the action and
not the totality of the problem. They (the NACCB) think that is
the only problem. Industry in general, anyone who buys heavy or
high-tech equipment," is affected.

"We have to do something with it," said one Immigration and Na-
turalization Service official. "We don't know what exactly to
do."

The problem is most pronounced in computers. This is how it
works, according to NACCB officials:

Typically, the foreign companies bid to provide computer services
for U.S. firms, and bring in workers under the business visas or
use workers they have already brought in under those visas.  The
visas are granted for short periods, usually up to six months,
but may be extended once the worker arrives.

The foreign companies, which may be affiliated with U.S. firms,
pay only living expenses here - generally about $1,500 a month,
said Schneider, who has a San Francisco computer consulting firm.
Salaries - often amounting to less than $2 an hour for Asians -
are paid in the workers' home countries.

The foreign companies are able to avoid paying any benefits,
overtime or minimum wage and typically do not pay U.S.  taxes,
according to the NACCB.

The salary differential easily allows foreign recruiters to un-
derbid American businesses, said William Campbell, who also runs
a San Francisco consulting firm.

"They make more profit than us even underbidding by 50 percent,"
he said. Many of the programming jobs are billed at about $30 an
hour, whereas the normal rate for U.S. companies for similar work
can exceed $50 an hour.

The NACCB has been lobbying the State Department and the INS, in-
sisting the practice is illegal. The visas are intended for busi-
ness people coming here to negotiate contracts or to attend
conferences, the trade group argues, or perhaps for highly spe-
cialized workers entering the country briefly to install special
equipment - not for general computer work.

The State Department and INS agree that these computer consul-
tants should be required to obtain another visa - for profession-
al workers - which is harder to get and is limited to 65,000 a
year under the 1990 immigration law.

The department, in the interests of speeding travel and trade,
permits such professionals to come in under the much broader
business visa, which is issued to nearly 3.5 million people a
year. The Department believes it would have to go through formal
rulemaking procedures to undo the practice.

Creating "job shops" for foreign professionals "is not what we
wanted to create," said one State Department official, who said
both the INS and the department "want to accommodate" the NACCB's
concerns and have been working on new rules for several months.

But it will be difficult to draw a line between working and "do-
ing business," INS and department officials cautioned.

"We've been wrestling with this for 40 years," said another State
Department official. Part of the problem, he said, is that "you
need a set of rules that will stand judicial scrutiny and harmon-
ize the interests of all parties in all industries, and that is
not an easy thing to do."

Fred M.  Shulman, who owns a large computer services company in
Rockville, said he has lost "millions of dollars in business" to
foreign competitors in the last few years because of the visa
loophole.

"We have a hard time competing with them," he said, "because
their workers are paid a fraction of what they would be paid for
an equivalent job in this country."

Shulman said he is regularly solicited by representatives of
foreign companies to bid jointly on contracts.  "They can supply
large numbers of people," Shulman said. "My answer is I have to
make them my employees," he said, but that is not accepted by the
foreign companies.

The loophole not only hurts U.S. businesses and workers, NACCB
representatives argue, but also may harm the foreign workers tem-
porarily brought over. Despite their education and white-collar
jobs, some of the workers are kept as virtual peons in situations
reminiscent of those of illegal alien farm workers.

Alex Dubenko, for example, is a Ukrainian computer analyst re-
cruited by a Kiev company to work in the United States. On ar-
rival here last October he was met by the company's local re-
cruiter, a Belgian, who put Dubenko and several Russians to work
at firms in Maryland and Virginia.

Dubenko and three other men were lodged in a house near Manassas,
driven to and from work, and fed. Dubenko said he was paid $20 a
week, which, after conversion to rubles, he calculated as a prop-
er wage for equivalent work in the Soviet Union.

Unsure of his legal status, Dubenko worked seven days a week,
often morning to night. He was given a raise to $40 a week.

Finally, in frustration, he and one of the other men began cal-
ling local companies last February to look for another job.
Although neither had a valid driver's license, they took the
recruiter's car and found their way around the Beltway, out
Interstate 270 to Shulman's company in Rockville.

They applied for work, passed a test and were hired, according to
Dubenko.

When the recruiter found out, Dubenko said, he ripped the tele-
phone from the wall, removed the battery from the car and said,
"In two days you fly to Russia."

Dubenko said he found an extension phone and called Shulman's
company, which sent someone to pick them up. Dubenko said he is
now earning about $35,000 a year, working under a proper visa.

"But there are still people living in the house in Manassas," he
said, still working for the foreign recruiter.< 04:54 11-
09C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)