How Well Does the Government Track What H-1Bs are Doing?
The short answer is THEY DON’T Most people assume that our government tracks where H-1Bs are, whom they work for, how much money they earn, and other essential facts necessary for running a visa program. During the Immigration Subcommittee Hearing in 1999 Lamar Smith (R-TX) verified that this tracking is not done when he suggested that the INS should develop a system to track the immigration status of individuals on petition-based visas after they enter the country. [4] Our government has lots of data. The problem is that having the raw data” and having electronic access to it are two different issues. INS is deluged with paper; much of the information collected is never entered into their data system. The data that is entered electronically isn’t open for public use. Since responsibility for H-1B immigration applications spans the Departments of Labor, State and Justice–whose data systems aren’t even linked–no one agency has the complete picture. You’ve no doubt heard about the acci
