Sunday, September 24, 2006
Staff photo by John Ewing
Jayasudha Domala worked for Virtue Group, a high-tech temp agency, while living in Chicago. She said she never worked in Maine, but Virtue filed certification papers through its former office at 480 Congress St. in Portland, above, saying she would work there. The Portland Business Center has since moved to 415 Congress St.
More Information:
Jayasudha Domala came to the United States as a student and stayed as a green card holder, thanks to paperwork initially filed through the state of Maine.
Domala never worked here, however. She worked as a computer consultant with the Georgia-based Virtue Group for a year-and-a-half, serving clients based around her Chicago home, she said. Virtue Group began the process to get her green card by applying for labor certification with the U.S. Department of Labor through Maine.
Her experiences, and those of others like her, illustrate the path many skilled immigrants take to get to this country and stay here. It's a path that in some cases led through Maine - at least on paper.
During 2004 and 2005, 46 out-of-state companies leased single small cubicles in business centers and office buildings and listed these addresses on immigration paperwork as the sites where 10-plus foreigners would work, according to state and federal records.
Eleven have since closed their Maine offices. In at least 10 other instances, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram was unable to determine any connection at all to the state of Maine. The remaining 25 companies say they either have some employees still in the state or still rent cubicles where their people sometimes work.
The newspaper tried to locate about 150 immigrants who had labor certification applications for green cards filed through the state of Maine in 2004 and 2005, using a combination of Internet searches and directory assistance. Most phone numbers had been disconnected, likely because computer consultants working for temporary staffing firms generally don't work in any one location for very long. But 15 of the out-of-state phone numbers were still active.
Eleven of those workers didn't return messages, but four of these workers, including Domala, agreed to speak with the newspaper. There's no indication that these workers did anything improper, but their stories help shed light on foreign workers' efforts to get green cards.
For Domala, at least, her work with the Virtue Group led to a green card. A green card means an immigrant has stability and the ability to work in the United States indefinitely, and often leads to a staff position with a company.
After finishing her master's in computer chip design at San Jose State University in 2002, Domala said, she took a job with a Detroit-based computer consulting staffing agency, then moved to Chicago and took a job with the Virtue Group, which had offices in Alpharetta, Ga., and Portland, at the Portland Business Center, which provides office space on short-term leases.
"The reason I went to that company was the green card," said Domala. "They filed my green card, I shifted to that company."
Virtue is essentially a high-tech temp agency that deals almost exclusively in foreign workers. Those firms are sometimes called "body shops." These firms file immigration papers for workers and contract them out to companies or governments that need computer workers for short-term projects, ranging anywhere from three months to a few years. The clients pay the firms for the workers. The firms take a percentage of the pay, typically 20 percent, and then pay the foreign workers the rest.
Domala said she worked for a client in Chicago, and never worked in Maine, though Virtue filed for her labor certification papers through its Portland offices, and asserted on the paperwork that she would work here at 480 Congress St.
In files for the Virtue Group released to the newspaper by the state, a Maine official denied three labor certification requests outright in February 2004 because the company didn't have an unemployment insurance tax account set up with the state. Paying unemployment insurance on workers indicates a company actually has employees based in Maine, required before a company could file for immigration papers through Maine.
Eight other applications were approved by the U.S. Department of Labor later in 2004 and in early 2005, indicating that the Virtue Group had eventually set up an unemployment tax account.
In one application, the Michigan attorney filing the paper work asserted "VIRTUE GROUP LLC is a well established and a MAINE based company," uppercasing the words on the forms.
On its Web site, Virtue lists offices in Maine, Georgia and India. Several messages left on voicemail at its local office at the Portland Business Center were not answered. Someone did answer the phone on a July call and promised a quick call back. When no one called back after several hours, a reporter went to the Portland Business Center and was told no one was in the offices. A call to the company's Georgia office made the same day also wasn't returned; nor was a call to the company's Portland office made last week.
Domala today has a staff position at Abbott Labs in Illinois.
"Getting the green card makes it easier to get the job," said Domala.
FASTEST WAY TO A GREEN CARD
Rajesh Mohan also had immigration papers filed through Maine. His journey began a world away in India, with a seven-hour train ride from Bangalore to Chennai, and then a four-hour wait in line before he even got into the U.S. consulate to get his H1B visa stamped.
Mohan worked with Data Concepts in New Jersey, and considered taking a position with Lekha Inc. Lekha began his immigration paperwork through Maine before he was hired, also listing its offices at the Portland Business Center.
"A company based in Maine used to get green cards faster,"said Mohan.
But the federal labor certification process changed on March 28, 2005. The system since then has been automated, and the role of the states has become vastly diminished. Instead of filing the federal forms initially with the states, companies file directly with the federal government, online.
Mohan said the green card labor application Lekha filed for him got put into a massive backlog of U.S. Department of Labor paperwork, and he didn't take the job.
"That green card application didn't go anywhere," he said.
If he had taken the job, said Mohan, he wouldn't have moved to Maine because his clients were based in New Jersey, where he still lives today. Lekha lists only an Iselin, N.J., office on its Web site. According to state and federal records, Lekha filed labor certification applications for 12 green card positions through Maine, and 18 labor condition applications for H1B visas.
"We are trying to set up a bigger office (in Maine), but the market is still on the slower end," said Karan Babhuna, company president.
Working in the United States as a computer consultant from India can be difficult, said Mohan.
"Being fresh off the boat, you lose money. You don't know anything," said Mohan, speaking generally. "The company that got you here tries to make good money out of you."
New immigrants don't have contacts or information to allow them to easily leave and go to another company, he said. And, while here on a visa, the workers can't threaten to just quit the company and look for work, he said, because your visa is linked to your employer.
"You're basically bound to the company," said Mohan. "It's not like if you don't pay me I leave and work at Home Depot."
STILL IN TOWN
Rajesh Kumar, meanwhile, is an example of a worker who did come to Maine.
BCC USA Inc. filed for his labor certification through Maine in September 2004. His green card application is still in the works, said Kumar, winding through the federal bureaucracy.
Kumar lived and worked in South Portland last year, he said, for about six months. He worked on the company's Web site out of its 650 Main St. offices, and today still works for BCC.
He's now based out of the New Jersey area and works for New Jersey and New York clients.
BCC Marketing Director Karan Manickam said he personally is still working in the 650 Main St. offices. The property owner confirmed that BCC was still operating there. BCC filed 29 labor certification applications for green cards through Maine, and 15 labor condition applications for H1B visa positions, according to state and federal records.
The company opened offices here to take advantage of the quick green card processing times and because it saw a lack of competition for its services. It is based in Massachusetts, Manickam said.
The company still hopes to expand in Maine and relocate workers here, he said.
Staff Writer Matt Wickenheiser can be contacted at 791-6316 or at:
Reader comments
Sort by: Oldest first | Newest First
But since the "plans" don't come true, people are still crossing the borders, getting under employed and/or getting paid under the table and once they don't have a job, they are out in the streets, lost and maybe going the wrong way...
One side says "Immigrants are essential for our Economy", then another side says "We don't need them" and while this debate keeps going, a solution is not made and they are still here, working, living and trying to build a better life.
It is interesting the fact that States such as California and New York has one of the strongest economies in the Country and the biggest Immigrant population. While Maine with so very few Immigrants is the poorest State in the US.
report abuse
You must be a registered user of MaineToday.com to post a comment. Register or log in.