H-1B Visas Hit the Cap, Sending Companies to Plan B

H-1B Visas Hit the Cap, Sending Companies to Plan B
Bloomberg, 13-June-12
By Elizabeth Dwoskin

For Silicon Valley, a day of ritual disappointment came on June 12: The U.S. announced that the slots for 2013 H-1B visas had all been filled.

On the first business day in April, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services opens the rounds of petitioning for these coveted visas for highly skilled foreign workers. The agency awards the 85,000 visas on a first-come, first-served basis and companies scramble to get in their applications for foreign hires as quickly as they can. (Human resources managers, knowing the cap was close to being filled, worked through the weekend, racing to file.) The cap has been the same since 2004, with 65,000 slots for foreign hires and 20,000 spaces reserved for graduates of U.S. universities.

The speed at which the cap is reached is a loose indicator of the economy’s state. In 2007, slots filled up on May 26 (July 26 for university grads). In 2008, the cap was reached in a single day: April 2. In 2009, applications were sluggish and took eight months to reach the cap. In 2011, the slots were filled in seven months.

It now appears that things are picking up again—a good sign for the economy.

So if you miss the H-1B cap, what’s a company to do? Firms often begin a game of “musical chairs” with the U.S. visa system, says Neil Ruiz, who studies labor migration as an associate fellow at the Brookings Institution. (Brookings has a cool chart that tracks the cap). Companies may station hires in an overseas office for a year, at which point they could apply for another kind of visa: the L-1B for “key personnel” with “specialized” and proprietary knowledge of a company’s procedures and products. Unlike the H-1B, the L-1B isn’t subject to a requirement that companies pay a competitive wage. Companies can bring over personnel on a temporary business training visa for 90 days, and then keep trying to renew it. That process is cumbersome and makes it tricky for businesses to plan.

The number of H-1B slots depends on Congress’s mood toward foreign workers. Lawmakers frequently propose legislation to change the system for foreign hires with special skills. Bills have been put forth to subject the L-1 internal company transfers to the H-1B’s prevailing wage requirement. In the current Congress, Senator John Cornyn (R-Tex.) has offered a bill that would raise the ceiling on university graduates in math, science, and engineering to 55,000. Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) would create an “Entrepreneur Visa” to allow foreigners who start new businesses and create jobs to remain in the U.S.

Since Congress created the H-1B in 1965 and the L-1 for specialized skills and managers five years later, opponents have argued that American workers would be displaced. There’s evidence on both sides: A 2009 report from New York University’s Stern School of Business and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton school found that despite the prevailing wage requirement, H-1Bs depress wages in the tech sector by 6 percent. But a Public Policy Institute of California study reached the opposite conclusion: When you take raises into account, H-1B workers ultimately get paid more than their American counterparts. The debate remains a lively one.

Three Chinese Firms in Bid to Build New Pokhara Airport

Three Chinese Firms in Bid to Build New Pokhara Airport
TKP, 4-May-12

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) received only three confirmed bids to develop the much-talked about regional international airport at Chinnedanda, Pokhara as the tender deadline ended Friday afternoon.

Out of the 10 Chinese firms that obtained bid documents, three, China CAMC Engineering Co, Sinohydro Corporation and China International Water and Electric Corporation, have returned them to CAAN. According to CAAN, all the three bidders are listed by the China International Contractors Association, an international project contracting company approved by the Ministry of Commerce of China.

According to CAAN, the tender documents will be processed after it holds its board meeting. However, that may take some time as the Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation is the board’s chairperson and a new minister is yet to be appointed.

“After the board meeting, the technical and financial aspects of the contractors will be evaluated to select the finalist,” said CAAN’s Deputy Director General Suman Shrestha.

The lowest bidder will be awarded the contract after assessing the bid documents. Under technical eligibility, the bidder should have at least 10 years’ experience in infrastructure projects and shall have completed at least one airport project including communication and navigational aids equipment with installation outside or within China and a project cost of at least US$ 120 million. Similarly, under financial eligibility, the bidder should have liquid assets or availability of credit facilities of not less than US$ 20 million. Shrestha said that CAAN would select the lowest bidder and recommend the firm to its line ministry. The ministry will forward the selected firm’s name to the Finance Ministry which will then start loan negotiations with the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank). The government plans to develop the airport with a soft loan of around US$ 145 million from Exim bank. 

In 1975, the government acquired more than 3,106 ropanis of land to build the planned airport. The government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency conduct a detailed study in 1989.

The study had proposed a 2,500 m long and 50 m wide runway, a terminal and a cargo building.

Construction of the airport, which was expected to be completed in four years, was estimated to cost of US$ 39.6 million at the time. A new study has estimated that the project will now cost more than US$ 180 million.

CAAN invited bids for execution of the project under the engineering procurement and construction (EPC) model on Feb 9 and extended the deadline twice.

The EPC plan allows participation of Chinese companies or joint ventures between Chinese and Nepali companies with the Chinese partner holding more than 50 percent of the shares.

St Xavier’s School to Mark Diamond Jubilee

St Xavier’s School to Mark Diamond Jubilee
TKP, 29-Apr-2012

St Xavier’s School, one of the premier schools in Nepal and run by the Nepal Jesuit Society (NJS) is celebrating its diamond jubilee on May 6 on the school premises in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur.

The school was established on July 5, 1951 by Father Marshall D Moran on the request of the government of Nepal.

The school, which first started at Godavari in Lalitpur with 65 students is now among the most reputed academic institutions with hundreds of students from pre-primary to the college level studying there.

Father Boniface Tigga, the regional superior of the Jesuits in Nepal, told a press conference at the school in Jawalakhel, that around 3,000 students are studying in the school level in four schools—two in Jhapa and one each at Godavari and Jawalakhel—while around 3,500 are pursuing higher education at St Xavier’s College at Maitighar.

Apart from the schools, the NJS also operates a Child Care Centre for the mentally challenged children in Pokhara and Jawalakhel, a drug abuse rehabilitation centre, Freedom Centre, at Nakkhipot in Lalitpur and the Human Development Research Centre at Sanepa.

“We are looking forward to opening two more schools—one at Sadakbari in Jhapa and the other at Hemja in Kaski, targeting children from the deprived community,” Father Amrit Rai, the Principal of St Xavier’s Jawalakhel, said.

Jimmy Kimmel at the 2012 White House Correspondents' Dinner

Credit Suisse Could Cut 5,000 jobs

Credit Suisse Could Cut 5,000 jobs
Reuters, 15-Apr-2012

The last time it happenend in 2008, it was not a good news for me.

Swiss bank Credit Suisse (VTX:CSGN.VX - News) could announce the loss of up to 5,000 jobs in its investment banking business at its forthcoming first-quarter results, a Swiss newspaper reported on Sunday.

Citing an estimate from a member of senior management, the Sonntag newspaper said the bank could cut around 5,000 positions. The investment bank is "simply completely oversized", the person was quoted as saying.

The bank is due to report first-quarter results on April 25.

Credit Suisse ended 2011 with 20,900 investment bankers, 200 more than at the beginning of the year. Staff count at the whole bank was largely stable even after two rounds of cuts eliminated 7 percent of the bank's overall workforce, or 3,500 jobs.

The Zurich-based bank has faced increased shareholder criticism about the size and the cost of its investment bank, raising pressure on Chief Executive Brady Dougan for cutbacks.

A spokeswoman for the bank did not want to comment or confirm the report.

Timeshare Prices Plummet to $1

Timeshare Prices Plummet to $
WSJ, 4-Apr-12
By AnnaMaria Andriotis

Unable to sell his parents’ ocean-front timeshare for the past year, David Suder became so fed up he offered to give it away. They paid $8,000 for the Orange County, Calif. unit a decade ago, but since there are no willing buyers, and his 81-year-old mother, now a widow, can no longer afford the monthly maintenance fees, Suder says he doesn’t have a choice. The San Diego-based real estate investor is offering the unit for free in the hopes that someone will take it before his mother dies. “I don’t want to inherit it,” he says. “I want it to go away.”

While real estate – and even vacation real estate – is starting to show signs of recovery, timeshares remain in freefall. During the first quarter, the number of for-sale-by-owner postings doubled compared to the same period a year ago on RedWeek.com, a popular resale site. Another site, SellMyTimeshareNow.com, says owner sales are up 20% during that period.

Experts say even in better times, most sellers never saw a return on their investment. “Very few timeshares increase in value,” says Alisa Stephens, executive producer at RedWeek.com. As values sink and desperation grows, the number of owners giving their timeshares away for $1 – or less — has doubled in the past year, says Brian Rogers, of Timeshare Users Group, an owner advocacy group. “There’s never been a worst time to try to sell a timeshare,” he says.

Typically found in resorts, timeshares allow multiple buyers to purchase rights to use a property, like a hotel room, suite or condominium, for one to two weeks per year over a long period of time. They appealed to buyers who believed the timeshare’s purchase price was lower than the total amount they’d spend for hotel stays on future trips. Timeshare owners could also invite family and friends to stay with them for free.

Those perks never materialized for many timeshare owners who had to cut back on travel since the recession. Others couldn’t afford their timeshares after losing their jobs. Up to 48% of timeshare owners are behind on their annual maintenance payments by at least a year – up from 37% in 2007, according to TimeshareResortCollections.com, which helps resorts to recoup past due payments. The company covers about 80% of the timeshare industry.

To make up for these losses, resorts have been increasing the maintenance fees on the individuals who continue to use their timeshares. Average annual maintenance costs hit an all-time high of $731 in 2010, up more than 8% from the year prior, according to the latest data from the American Resort Development Association. Experts say those costs are still rising. And for some owners, they’re a big reason to sell, says Lisa Ann Schreier, director of Timeshare Insights, a consultant to timeshare buyers and sellers.

Faced with rising medical bills, John Chase, 62, and his wife decided to sell their timeshare at a megaresort in Orlando. After the listing lingered on the market for two and a half years, the couple chose to give it away just so they could avoid the maintenance fees. Though they bought it for $4,000 in the late ‘90s, they ended up selling it for just $1. Chase says he never expected to sell so low, especially since the sales pitch he received when he purchased the timeshare led him to believe its price might increase.

For their part, resorts are changing their approach to timeshares. Howard Nusbaum, president and CEO of ARDA, says consumers should buy timeshares to use them – not as an investment. Resort developers, he says, are now marketing timeshares to a smaller group of high-income consumers who are more likely to be able to afford timeshares and who don’t need a loan to purchase them. Sales between resorts and buyers totaled $6.4 billion in 2010, according to the latest data, down 40% from their peak in 2007, according to ARDA. Experts say 2011 data isn’t expected to be much better.

The data is in stark contrast to vacation homes, where demand is rising. Roughly half a million vacation homes sold in 2011, up 7% from 2010, according to data released last week by the National Association of Realtors.

To be sure, some timeshares are retaining values better than others. Owners with timeshares at brand-name resorts are likely to recoup the most, especially if those locations are in areas where real estate supply is limited, like Key West or Myrtle Beach, says Jason Tremblay, CEO of SellMyTimeshareNow.com.

Before selling at a huge loss, timeshare owners might want to consider some alternatives. Stephens suggests renting the timeshare to vacationers at a price that covers the annual maintenance fee but is cheaper than what travelers would pay to stay at a hotel. Or consider asking the resort if it will buy the timeshare back; the price it might offer won’t be near what the owner paid the developer originally but could be higher than what other buyers are offering.

Other sellers say they’ll hold out until a buyer comes along. Joe Cantu and his wife paid $15,000 for a two-bedroom suite at a high-end resort in Las Vegas seven years ago. They recently welcomed a new baby, and they’ve been trying to sell the timeshare. His asking price is $3,500, but despite the resort’s amenities, which include a putting green, sand-bottom pool and in-room massage services, he hasn’t received offers close to that in the eight months it’s been on the market. “I’ll just keep it posted as long as I need to,” he says.