The H1B amendment that passed isn’t as tough as the one Grassley proposed on Feb. 5, which would have prohibited firms from hiring H-1Bs altogether. The modified amendment instead makes TARP recipients like Citibank, Bank of America , GM etc jump through extra hoops before they can hire those foreign workers. Specifically, it subjects recipients of TARP funds to the same rules so-called H-1B dependent employers must follow. (An H-1B dependent employer is one whose workers brought in with that visa comprise 15% or more of the employer's total workforce.)
The new additions in the H1B rules include:
1. The employer can’t displace any similarly employed U.S. worker with an H-1B hire within 90 days before or after applying for H-1B status or an extension of status.
2. The employer can’t place any H-1B worker at the worksite of another employer – meaning it can’t outsource a worker for a client – unless that employer first makes a “bona fide” inquiry as to whether the other employer has displaced or will displace a U.S. worker within 90 days before or after the placement of the H-1B worker.
3. The employer has to take good-faith steps to recruit U.S. workers for the job opening, at wages at least equal to those offered to the H-1B worker. The employer must offer the job to any U.S. worker who applies and is equally or better qualified than the H-1B worker.
“These are hardly onerous expectations,” notes Ron Hira, professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and an expert on H-1B visas. Hira says the provision would affect about 1,000 jobs.
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