Brij Singh's Blog

This was bound to happen as it makes for such a juicy political resume builder. Outsourcing is a hot button and H1B visa is it’s most visible aspect. Business Week reports that Senators Chuck Grassley and Richard Durbin are going after leading outsourcing companies.

Unfortunately congress will put this under political arena and will run the risk of not listening carefully to what Bill Gates said in his testimony. This country needs talented engineers and and there is a global competition for that talent.

What they need to do is to fix the visa allocation process. This needs to be an administrative cleanup rather than political. Its “first-come, first-served” model promotes hoarding and quota competition. There needs to be a level playing field between small companies (who cannot afford quota-watchers and H1B processors), local companies (whose needs are more impulsive and lose out on the quota numbers) and Indian outsourcing companies (whose business model allows process investment in H1B visa procurement).

Since defining American competitiveness will prove to be non-objective exercise so we will again end up with another half-assed solution.