IT Consulting and IT consultants issues addressed.

Since the release January 2010, Neufeld Memo on H1B, many IT consulting firms have reduced their number of applications or stop applying for H1B in general. This article does not cover this memo but is intended to reinforce or demystify the issues related to H1B filing and permanent residence filing through a PERM labor certification.

First of all we have to know what is an IT consulting firm. The ‘IT consulting firm’ is usually what we know as temp agencies or placement companies. In a time of uncertainty, many big companies such as google, Microsoft, Boeing, and so on, find themselves in a dilemma of employment full time employees or temporary workers in order to continue doing business. Good business sense, dictates that having to hire more employees on a full time basis requires more administration to select and maintain these employees. Therefore, many of them choose just to contract the skilled temporary labor from small IT consulting firms. To this end IT consulting firms have become ‘necessary evils’.

Because most people do not understand the dynamic and thinking process of these companies and because some of these IT consulting firms have abused the system, they have forced the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to apply strict rules on such small companies. This has resulted in a chilling effect of many of the genuine IT consulting firms. In turn, the employees of these firms are also very fearful. There are reasons to be fearful, but most of the fears can be addressed in a rational manner. Below are few reasons why they are afraid and what can be done to alleviate the fear:

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