H1B1 visa requirement. The position's already filled by some dirty French girl, but in order to prove there were no other qualified candidates out there (ha!) the company needs to show proof that the position was publicly advertised.

No offense to dirty french girls, of course. It's hard importing you-kind these days.

I would assume Chinese or Indian before French.  But I get the gist.  The firm I was laid off from (on the 3rd round) got rid of their H1b's on the first round ... Why oh why can't we H1B to France to get back at 'em?

Rusty hit it on the mark.  We've done that before when people's visas are up for renewal or their status changes.  Literally, you post their job description up in the most obscure location you can find.  

I'm personally of the view that this approach is improper or at least untoward, especially when so many highly qualified people who do have a legal right to work in the US are looking... but that's just me.

A number of European countries start cancelling guest worker visas when they go into recession. Speaking as an American, I don't know why we would not do the same.  IMO, the availability of H1B's and the like should be greatly reduced when domestic unemployment goes down dramatically.    Exemptions might be made available for industries with genuine shortages of particular skillsets (like some IT areas), but not generally.

H1B employees salaries are usually lower than that of the domestic employees. employers are thinking about their bottom line.

yep.  it's called insourcing.  Corporate America spends millions lobbying Congress for those visas.  I think the practice is wrong.

Archinect once again puts me in a bitter mood.

Thanks!

I looked @ myvisajobs.com, which lists every h1b petition that american companies make and their statuses... this employer was denied twice in 2011, and then got one, after having no h1b petitions since 2007 ... That does seem unethical to seek h1b's in this current employment crisis ... 

what really shocked me though, was the huge number of 2010 - 2011 H1b's that firms like AECOM, Kohn Pedersen Fox, HOK are getting.. it is disgusting, this is exactly the sort of thing that unionizing would help stop

Going back to medieval times, architects were a travelling bunch (the ultimate creation of freemasons). After a big project was completed (church, castle.etc...) you moved to a new city or changed careers. Even in modern times architectural profession gives you certain level of mobility when seeking employment (my old classmates are scattered around the globe). As such, governments being protectionist about domestic labor market during the times of global economy is bound to backfire. US schools are giving out advanced degrees to foreigners whom we then ship back to wherever they came from. Next you know, we start losing even the good jobs.

I feel the pain of people who say H1B1 visas are unfair, but architecture is different. Should American companies not be allowed to work on foreign projects? It would seem only fair.

"what really shocked me though, was the huge number of 2010 - 2011 H1b's that firms like AECOM, Kohn Pedersen Fox, HOK are getting.."

These are huge international companies with offices around the world. I imagine that having employees be able to move around helps in a lot of project situations. There is still room for abuse, I agree.

I think the problem is a difficult one.. foreigners hire American architects, engineers consultants, etc, to design their buildings.  Those American architects in term hire foreigners to work for them to design those buildings.  

My view is that the purpose of granting H1Bs has to be clearly defined.  It should never be an excuse to lower salaries (even though you're explicitly not supposed to that, they are, in fact, used that way), but as Rusty notes, there are legitimate reasons why some foreigners need to be employed in architecture in the US.

Politically, the process needs to be made more transparent and monitored more closely against abuses.