Foreigners making mark in valley’s labor market

With the deadline for 2008 H-1B visa applications just a week away, U.S. Department of Labor statistics show that 200 organizations in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Ulster counties hired a total 900 foreign workers last year under the program.

Organizations in the five counties spent $40 million on H-1B payroll, with salaries ranging from a $225,000 a-year doctor at Hudson Valley Oncology P.C. in Kingston, to a teacher at Green Chimneys Children Services Inc. in Brewster who is making one-tenth that amount.

IBM Corp. hired the largest number of H-1B workers, bringing 60 international residents to its facilities in Hopewell Junction and Poughkeepsie. As might be expected, IBM was by far the largest employer of foreign workers in Westchester County as well, hiring 115 people to work in its Armonk headquarters and three other facilities.

After IBM, Indotronix International Corp. was the next most active hirer of H-1B visa workers in the lower Hudson Valley, with the information technology consultancy bringing in 50 workers to its Poughkeepsie headquarters.

Other organizations in the region to hire at least a dozen H-1B workers in 2006 included:

? Apollo Consulting Services Corp. in Poughkeepsie;

? Columbia University for its Palisades campus;

? State University of New York, New Paltz; and

? Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc., Pearl River.

The H-1B program allows companies to temporarily employ foreign workers who have at least the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor”™s degree and who specialize in a niche discipline such as engineering or health care. Visas are valid for up to six years, though the duration of most contracts with H-1B workers is less than half that term.

It is the highestprofile of several work visa programs, which include L-1 visas that allow foreign managers of a corporation to enter a country, and TN-1 visas, which allow Canadian and Mexican citizens to work in the U.S.

Congress limits the number of H-1B visas it grants to 65,000 annually, with universities and government laboratories omitted from the quota numbers. With American companies taking just two months last year to max out the visa quota, a record, some in Congress want to increase the quota to 119,000.

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Companies view the program as a vital pipeline to meet their labor needs; critics say the program strips jobs from American workers. They also claim the law applies downward pressure on wages, though companies are required to disclose prevailing wages for jobs they fill and ensure foreign workers are compensated accordingly.

Just five local H-1B visa applications were rejected in 2006, according to the Department of Labor; less than 10 more are on hold.

According to California consultancy VisaNow, delays often occur from organizations not providing correct documentation on items such as evidence of a bachelor”™s degree equivalent and pay stubs. It is not unusual for applications to be rejected due to the lapse of a student F-1 visa as an individual prepares to qualify for an H-1B visa.

The company advises organizations hiring under the program to retain an immigration attorney to steer them through the process.