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There seems to be a mix. Which is part of the problem with the national debate / conversation. There are companies who found the absolute best in the world tha

There seems to be a mix. Which is part of the problem with the national debate / conversation. There are companies who found the absolute best in the world that they have to have. So they need that H1-B to get the job done and hire the best person. Then there are companies who just want to contract out super cheap labor, so they do thousands of H1-B applications hoping a few hundred make it through, then the they charge a local rate, but pay the employee a fraction and reap the profits.

runawaybottle 6y ago
So the second example I’m assuming is the operating model of companies like Accenture, Cognizant, etc. I’m flooding this thread a bit, but I’ve always been a little confused by the consultancy firms. Is there a clear difference between off shoring and H1B? Or is it mostly the same thing for these companies, with different margins for each.
- blntechie 6y ago
  Truth be said the consultancy companies barely make any or in fact lose money with the H-1Bs and they make way more margin on offshoring. But customers want people near them for various reasons and the offshoring doesn’t generally work well without boots on the ground. So the H-1Bs are loss leaders with actual money being made in offshoring instead.
- diebeforei485 6y ago
  Consultancy firms often have an offshore team in a lower cost country (India, Phillipines, Mexico). The consulting firm typically employs a few people in the US on H-1B visas, contracted to the client, for communication with the offshore team, onsite support for the client, and generally managing things. But the client often has their own employees on H-1B visas as well. This is unrelated to either offshoring/consulting. Eg. Take a company like Apple. Apple hires employees on H-1B visas and pays them well. But also Apple uses consulting firms (both US-based and offshored) for specific projects/functions. These workers are not Apple employees. They are employees of the consulting company -- or in some cases, there is a chain of contracts where they are employed by one company, which contracts them out to a consulting firm, which then contracts them out to end client (Apple).
  - runawaybottle 6y ago
    Just at first glance, that seems like a whole lot of middle men.

runawaybottle 6y ago

So the second example I’m assuming is the operating model of companies like Accenture, Cognizant, etc. I’m flooding this thread a bit, but I’ve always been a little confused by the consultancy firms. Is there a clear difference between off shoring and H1B? Or is it mostly the same thing for these companies, with different margins for each.

blntechie 6y ago
Truth be said the consultancy companies barely make any or in fact lose money with the H-1Bs and they make way more margin on offshoring. But customers want people near them for various reasons and the offshoring doesn’t generally work well without boots on the ground. So the H-1Bs are loss leaders with actual money being made in offshoring instead.
diebeforei485 6y ago
Consultancy firms often have an offshore team in a lower cost country (India, Phillipines, Mexico). The consulting firm typically employs a few people in the US on H-1B visas, contracted to the client, for communication with the offshore team, onsite support for the client, and generally managing things. But the client often has their own employees on H-1B visas as well. This is unrelated to either offshoring/consulting. Eg. Take a company like Apple. Apple hires employees on H-1B visas and pays them well. But also Apple uses consulting firms (both US-based and offshored) for specific projects/functions. These workers are not Apple employees. They are employees of the consulting company -- or in some cases, there is a chain of contracts where they are employed by one company, which contracts them out to a consulting firm, which then contracts them out to end client (Apple).
- runawaybottle 6y ago
  Just at first glance, that seems like a whole lot of middle men.