title: H-1B visa

text: The taxation of income for an individual with H-1B status depends on whether they are categorized as either "nonresident aliens" or "resident aliens" for tax purposes. A nonresident alien for tax purposes is only taxed on income that is effectively connected with a trade or business in the United States and United States-source income that is fixed, determinable, annual, or periodical. A resident alien for tax purposes is taxed on all income, including income from outside the United States.


title: H-1B visa

text: The classification is determined based on the substantial presence test. If the substantial presence test indicates that the individual is a resident, then income taxation is like any other U.S. person and may be filed using Form 1040 and the necessary schedules. Otherwise, the individual must file as a non-resident alien using Form 1040NR or Form 1040NR-EZ; the individual may claim a benefit from tax treaties that exist between the United States and the individual's country of citizenship.


title: H-1B visa

text: An individual in the first year in the U.S. may choose to be considered a resident for taxation purposes for the entire year, and must pay taxes on their worldwide income for that year. This first-year choice can only be made once in an individual's lifetime. A spouse, regardless of visa status, must include a valid Individual Taxpayer Identification Number or Social Security number on a joint tax return with the individual in H-1B status.


title: H-1B visa

text: Tax filing rules for an individual in H-1B status may be complex, depending on the individual situation. A tax professional who is knowledgeable about the rules for foreigners may be consulted.


title: H-1B visa

text: Employers must generally withhold Social Security and Medicare taxes from the wages paid to employees in H-1B status.


title: H-1B visa

text: Similarly to U.S. citizens, a person who worked in H-1B status may be eligible to receive Social Security benefit payments at retirement. Generally, a worker must have worked in the U.S. and paid Social Security taxes obtaining at least 40 credits before retirement. The person will not be eligible for payments if the person moves outside the U.S. and is a citizen of a country with a social insurance system or a pension system that pays periodic payments upon old age, retirement, or death.


title: H-1B visa

text: The U.S. has bilateral agreements with several countries to ensure that the credit granted into the U.S. Social Security system, even if it is fewer than 40 credits, is taken into account in the foreign country's comparable system and vice versa.


title: H-1B visa

text: Even though the H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa, it is one of the few temporary visa categories recognized as "dual intent", meaning an H-1B holder could legally have an immigration intent (apply for and obtain the green card) while still being a holder of the H-1B visa. However, this was only allowed in special cases by the USCIS, such as EB-1 visas. Effectively, the non-immigrant visa may eventually lead to permanent residence; companies often support it with the agreement to support the employee with green card petitions.


title: H-1B visa

text: In the past, the employment-based green card process used to take only a few years, less than the duration of the H-1B visa itself because requirement to maintain a foreign address for this non-immigrant classification was removed in the Immigration Act of 1990. The Trump administration expressed its dislike of the use of the H-1B visa, a nonimmigrant visa, as a pathway to permanent residence, and it has said it intends to restructure the immigration/permanent residence pathway with efficient systems such as Points-based immigration system. In apparent response, some green card seekers look to alternatives, like the EB-5 visa, which offers better prospects for permanent immigration than the H-1B visa. As a response to the abuse of H-1B visas, groups like Progressives for Immigration Reform advertised opposition posters throughout San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stations and trains.


title: H-1B visa

text: H-1B visa holders can bring immediate family members (spouse and children under 21) to the United States under the H-4 visa category as dependents.


title: H-1B visa

text: An H-4 visa holder may remain in the U.S. as long as the H-1B visa holder retains legal status. An H-4 visa holder is allowed to attend school, apply for a driver's license, and open a bank account in the United States.


title: H-1B visa

text: Effective May 26, 2015, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services allows some spouses of H-1B visa holders to apply for eligibility to work in the United States. The spouse would need to file Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, with supporting documents and the required filing fee. The spouse is authorized to work in the United States only after the Form I-765 is approved and the spouse receives an Employment Authorization Document card.


title: H-1B visa

text: When an H-1B worker travels outside the U.S. for any reason (other than to Canada or Mexico), he or she must have a valid visa stamped on his or her passport for re-entry in the United States. If the worker has an expired stamp but an unexpired i-797 petition, he or she will need to appear in a U.S. Embassy to get a new stamp. In some cases, H-1B workers can be required to undergo "administrative processing," involving extra background checks of different types. Under current rules, these checks are supposed to take ten days or less, but in some cases, have lasted years.


title: H-1B visa

text: The United States immigration system's EB-5 visa program permits foreign entrepreneurs to apply for a green card if they make a sufficient investment in a commercial enterprise and intend to create 10 or more jobs in the United States. Dissatisfied with this mechanism, and taking advantage of the lack of a cap for H-1B visa issued to educational institutions, the University of Massachusetts began a program in 2014 that allows entrepreneurs to found U.S. companies while fulfilling visa requirements by teaching and mentoring on campus, with the university as sponsoring employer. Likewise, self-employed consultants have no visa that would allow them to enter the country and perform work independently for unspecified, extended periods (although, note that a B-1 visa would permit temporary travel to the U.S. to consult for specific periods), so consulting companies have been formed for the sole purpose of sponsoring employees on H-1B visas to allow them to perform work for clients, with the company sharing the resulting profit.


title: H-1B visa

text: An applicant may choose to pay for Premium Processing Service. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guarantees processing of applications and petitions within 15 calendar days. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will send an approval notice, a denial notice, a notice of intent to deny, a request for additional evidence, or open an investigation for fraud or misrepresentation within 15 calendar days of receiving Form I-907: Request for Premium Processing Service. If the 15-calendar-day window is not satisfied, then the Premium Processing Fee will be refunded.


title: H-1B visa

text: On March 3, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on its website that beginning on April 3, 2017, it would temporarily suspend premium processing for all H-1B visa petitions until further notice. Premium processing resumed on October 3, 2017.


title: H-1B visa

text: On March 20, 2018, premium processing was suspended for all cap-subject H-1B petitions for fiscal year 2019. On August 28, 2018, the premium processing suspension was extended and expanded to include all H-1B petitions filed at the Vermont Service Center and the California Service Center.


title: H-1B visa

text: On April 2, 2008, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff announced a 17-month extension to the Optional Practical Training for students in qualifying STEM fields. The Optional Practical Training extension was included in the rule-change commonly referred to as the H-1B Cap-Gap Regulations. The OPT extension only benefits foreign STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics) students and is not available to foreign students of other disciplines. The 17-month work-authorization extension allows the foreign STEM student to work up to 29 months in total on the student visa, allowing the STEM student multiple years to obtain an H-1B visa. To be eligible for the 12-month work-permit, any bachelor's degree in any field of study is valid. For the 17-month OPT extension, a student must have received a STEM degree in one of the approved majors listed on the USCIS website. The STEM extension can be combined with the cap-gap extension.


title: H-1B visa

text: On March 11, 2016, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published its final rule on the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) optional practical training (OPT) extension. This final rule will go into effect on May 10, 2016, and at that time will replace the current 17-month STEM OPT extension.DHS extended the period of time from 17 months to 24 months and strengthened oversight of the program by adding new features.


title: H-1B visa

text: In 2014, a federal court denied the government's motion to dismiss the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (Washtech) and three other plaintiffs' case against the OPT STEM extension. Judge Huvelle noted that the plaintiffs had standing due to increased competition in their field, that the OPT participation had ballooned from 28,500 in 2008, to 123,000 and that while the students are working under OPT on student visas, employers are not required to pay Social Security and Medicare contributions, nor prevailing wage.


title: H-1B visa

text: On August 9, 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a policy memorandum changing how the agency calculates unlawful presence for students and exchange visitors in F, J, and M nonimmigrant status, including F-2, J-2, and M-2 dependents, who fail to maintain status in the United States. Additional information is available on the Unlawful Presence and Bars to Admissibility page.


title: H-1B visa

text: On June 27, 1952, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act after overriding a veto by President Harry S. Truman. For the first time, the Immigration and Nationality Act codified United States' immigration, naturalization, and nationality law into permanent statutes, and it introduced a system of selective immigration by giving special preference to foreigners possessing skills that are urgently needed by the country. Several different types of visas were established, including a H-1 visa for "an alien having a residence in a foreign country which he has no intention of abandoning who is of distinguished merit and ability and who is coming temporarily to the United States to perform temporary services of an exceptional nature requiring such merit and ability." The term "distinguished merit and ability" was not new to United States immigration law; it had previously been used as a qualification for musicians and artists who had wanted to enter the United States. The visa was called an H-1 visa because it had been made into law by section 101(15)(H)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.


title: H-1B visa

text: The Immigration Act of 1990 was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on November 20, 1990. The H-1 visa was replaced by two different visas. An H-1A visa was created for nurses, and the H-1B visa was established for workers in a "specialty occupation". The Immigration Act defined a specialty occupation as "an occupation that requires theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge, and attainment of a bachelor's or higher degree in the specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States". In order to qualify, a visa applicant needed any applicable state license for the particular occupation and either an educational degree related to the occupation or an equivalent amount of professional experience. For the first time, there was established a quota of 65,000 H-1B visas available each fiscal year, rather than an unlimited amount before. An employer was required by law to pay such employees at least the prevailing wage for the position, and employers were required to make certain attestations by way of a Labor Condition Application.


title: H-1B visa

text: President Bill Clinton signed the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act into law on October 21, 1998. The law required that each application for an H-1B must include an additional $500 payment, which would be used for retraining U.S. workers in order to reduce the need for H-1B visas in the future. The quota of H-1B visas was increased from 65,000 to 115,000 for fiscal years 1999 and 2000 only. For an employer with a large number of employees in H-1B status or who had committed a willful misrepresentation in the recent past, the employer attest that the additional H-1B worker would not displace any U.S. workers. The act also gave investigative authority to the United States Department of Labor.


title: H-1B visa

text: On October 17, 2000, the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act was signed by President Bill Clinton. Under the law, the required retraining fee was increased from $500 to $1,000. The quota was increased to 195,000 H-1B visas in fiscal years 2001, 2002, and 2003 only. Nonprofit research institutions sponsoring workers for H-1B visas became exempt from the H-1B visa quotas.


title: H-1B visa

text: Under the law, a worker in H-1B status who had already been subject to a visa quota would not be subject to quotas if requesting a transfer to a new employer or if applying for a three-year extension. An H-1B worker became allowed to change employers if the worker had an I-485 application pending for six months and an approved I-140 and if the new position is substantially comparable to their current position.


title: H-1B visa

text: In the case of an H-1B holder's spouse in H-4 status, the spouse may be eligible to work in the United States under certain circumstances. The spouse must have an approved "Immigration Petition for Alien Worker" form or the spouse must have been given H-1B status under sections 106(a) and (b) of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act of 2000.


title: H-1B visa

text: Congress ratified the Singapore–United States Free Trade Agreement in 2003. It ratified the Chile–United States Free Trade Agreement later that year. With these free trade agreements, a new H-1B1 visa was established as being available solely for people from either Singapore or Chile. Unlike H-1B visas that had a limited renewal time, H-1B1 visas can be renewed indefinitely. H-1B1 visas are subject to a separate quota of 6,000 per fiscal year. Unlike H-1B visas, an H-1B1 visa is not a dual-intent visa, and an H-1B1 applicant must convince the visa officer that they have no intention of permanently immigrating to the United States.


title: H-1B visa

text: The H-1B Visa Reform Act of 2004 was a part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, which President George W. Bush signed on December 6, 2004. For employers with 26 or more employees, the required retraining fee was increased from $1,000 to $1,500, and it was reduced to $750 for all other employers. A new $500 "anti-fraud fee" was established that was required to be paid by the employer with the visa application. While the H-1B quota returned to 65,000 per year, the law added 20,000 visas for applicants with J-1 status with either a master's degree or a doctorate degree from a U.S. graduate school. Governmental entities became exempt from H-1B visa quotas. According to the law, H-1B visas that were revoked due to either fraud or willful misrepresentation would be added to the H-1B visa quota for the following fiscal year. The law also allowed one-year extensions of H-1B for H-1B visa holders who were applying for permanent residency and whose petitions had been pending for a long time. The United States Department of Labor had more investigative authority, but an employer could defend against misdeeds by using either the Good Faith Compliance Defense or the Recognized Industry Standards Defense.


title: H-1B visa

text: The Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 federalized immigration in the U.S. territory of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and it stipulated that, during a transition period, numerical limitations would not apply to otherwise qualified workers in the H visa category in the U.S. territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The exemption does not apply to any employment to be performed outside of Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.


title: H-1B visa

text: The Employ American Workers Act, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009. For employers who applied to sponsor a new H-1B and who had received funds under either the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) or the Federal Reserve Act Section 13, the employers were required to attest that the additional H-1B worker would not displace any U.S. workers and that the employer had not laid off, and would not lay off, any U.S. worker in a job equivalent to the H-1B position in the area of intended employment of the H-1B worker within the period beginning 90 days prior to the filing of the H-1B petition and ending 90 days after its filing.


title: H-1B visa

text: On January 8, 2010, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a memorandum stating that there must be a clear employee-employer relationship between the petitioner (employer) and the beneficiary (prospective visa holder). The memorandum outlines what the employer must do to be considered in compliance as well as putting forth the documentation requirements to back up the employer's assertion that a valid relationship exists.


title: H-1B visa

text: An employer must maintain a valid employee-employer relationship throughout the period of the worker's stay in the United States. The employer must have actual control or the right to control the employee and to be able to decide when, where, and how the employee will be employed and performs work.


title: H-1B visa

text: A valid employee-employer relationship typically includes many of the following: supervising the worker on- and off-site; maintaining such supervision through calls, reports, or visits; having a right to control the work on a day-to-day basis if such control is required; providing the worker with the tools and equipment needed for the job; having the ability to hire, pay, and terminate the worker's job; evaluating the worker's products, progress, and performance; provision of some type of employee benefits; allowing the worker to use the employer's proprietary information when performing work; assigning work to the worker that produces an end-product related to the employer's business; and having the ability to control the manner and means in which the worker accomplishes tasks. The memorandum further states that "common law is flexible about how these factors are to be weighed".


title: H-1B visa

text: Third-party placement firms and staffing firms do not qualify for H-1B status because they fail the control test.


title: H-1B visa

text: In 2015, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a rule that allowed certain spouses of H-1B workers to be eligible for work authorization.


title: H-1B visa

text: Under the rule, the H-1B worker must either be the principal beneficiary of an approved Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker (Form I-140) or have H-1B status under the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000, as amended by the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act, and the spouse must be in the United States with H-4 status.


title: H-1B visa

text: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated that it issued the rule in order to ease the financial burden that these families may experience as they transition from nonimmigrant to lawfully permanent resident status. The rule also reduces disincentives for H-1B workers to leave the United States, which disrupts the United States businesses employing these workers.


title: H-1B visa

text: In 2015, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services issued final guidance stating that an H-1B worker whose work site location of changes to a different metropolitan area, the change is considered a material change that requires the employer to certify a new Labor Condition Application to the Department of Homeland Security. Temporary changes of work site do not require a new Labor Condition Application, such as when the H-1B worker attends a training session, a seminar, or a conference of a short duration or when the H-1B worker is temporarily moved to a short-term placements of less than 30 days. If the amended H-1B petition is disapproved but the original petition remains valid, then the H-1B worker retains their H-1B status as long as they return to work at the original work site.


title: H-1B visa

text: On December 5, 2016, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a memorandum to provide guidance regarding periods of admissions for an individual in H-1B status. The memorandum stated that time spent as either an H-4 dependent or an L-2 dependent does not reduce the maximum allowable period of stay available to individuals in H-1B status.


title: H-1B visa

text: On November 18, 2017, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services released a rule that affects individuals in H-1B status whose employment ends. In these cases, the individual has a grace period of 60 days to leave the United States or change to another legal status that allows them to remain in the United States.


title: H-1B visa

text: In 2005, the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 allowed work authorization for victims of domestic violence who are in H-4 status. On February 17, 2017, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services instituted a process for these victims to apply for work authorization.


title: H-1B visa

text: Eligible individuals include an individual who is currently married to a H-1B worker; an individual whose deceased spouse was in H-1B status at death; an individual whose spouse lost H-1B status because of an incident of domestic violence; or an individual whose marriage to a H-1B worker ended because of battery or extreme cruelty perpetrated by the individual's former spouse. The individual must also have entered the United States in an H status, must continue to be in H-4 status, and were themselves or their child battered or subjected to extreme cruelty perpetrated by the H-1B spouse. Among other things, the spouse's application must include evidence of the abuse, such as protection orders, police reports, court records, medical records, reports from social services agencies, a signed statement from the applicant detailing abuse suffered since your admission to the United States, and/or affidavits from other people who can knowledgeably attest to the abuse experienced.


title: H-1B visa

text: Before this policy was implemented, an abused spouse in H-4 status would be required to leave the United States the date the person divorced the abusive spouse. The divorced spouse now has a way to legally remain in the United States and legally work in the United States after the divorce is finalized or pending. If approved, the authorization is valid for two years.


title: H-1B visa

text: A memorandum from December 22, 2000, stated that, because most computer-programming positions required a bachelor's degree, computer programming was considered a specialty occupation that qualified for an H-1B visa. On March 31, 2017, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services released a memorandum stating that computer programming would no longer be automatically considered a specialty occupation, partly because a bachelor's degree was no longer typically required of these positions. An application for an H-1B visa for a computer programmer must sufficiently describe the duties and the level of experience and responsibilities of computer-programming positions in order to demonstrate how the position is a senior, complex, specialized, or unique computer-programming position rather than an entry-level position in order to qualify for an H-1B visa.


title: H-1B visa

text: In addition, the United States Department of Justice warned employers not to discriminate against U.S. workers by showing a preference for hiring H-1B workers.


title: H-1B visa

text: In 2017, the U.S. Congress considered more than doubling the minimum wage required for an H-1B holder from the $60,000 (USD) established in 1989 and unchanged since then. The High Skilled Integrity and Fairness Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, would raise H-1B holders' minimum salaries to $130,000. The action was criticized in the Indian press for confirming "the worst fears of [Indian] IT companies" in the wake of the reforms discussed during the 2016 Presidential election by both major candidates, and for causing a 5% drop in the BSE SENSEX index. Though, India in general has been welcoming this change and requirement since 2015. Lofgren's office described it as a measure to "curb outsourcing abuse" citing unfair tech hiring practices by employers including Disney and University of California San Francisco.


title: H-1B visa

text: On April 18, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that directed federal agencies to implement a "Buy American, Hire American" strategy.


title: H-1B visa

text: At a press briefing, the Department of Labor, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of State said that an executive order will direct federal agencies to implement a new system that favors higher-skilled, higher-paid applicants. The executive order is the first initiative in response to a key pledge made by Trump during his presidential campaign to promote a "Buy American, Hire American" policy. The executive order is intended to order federal agencies to review and propose reforms to the H-1B visa system. Through the executive order, Trump stated his broad policy of economic nationalism without having to go through Congress. The Secretary of Labor, Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Secretary of State will "fill in the details with reports and recommendations about what the administration can legally do." Trump said that the executive would "end the theft of American prosperity," which he said had been brought on by low-wage immigrant labor.


title: H-1B visa

text: On January 9, 2018, the USCIS said that it was not considering any proposal that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the United States during the green-card process. USCIS said an employer could request extensions in one-year increments under section 106(a)–(b) of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act instead.


title: H-1B visa

text: On June 28, 2018, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that, when a person's request for a visa extension is rejected, the person will be deported from the United States. The Trump administration said they are not considering any proposal that would force H-1B visa holders to leave the country.


title: H-1B visa

text: On April 22, 2020, President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation that temporarily suspended the entry of people with non-immigrant visas, including H-1B visas. On June 22, 2020, President Trump extended the suspension for H-1B visa holders until December 31, 2020. On December 31, 2020, President Trump issued a presidential proclamation extending the suspension of entry until March 31, 2021, because they would pose "a risk of displacing and disadvantaging United States workers during the economic recovery following the COVID-19 outbreak".


title: H-1B visa

text: President Joe Biden allowed the suspension to expire on March 31, 2021, which allowed H-1B visa holders to enter the U.S. beginning on April 1, 2021.


title: H-1B visa

text: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for ensuring that foreign workers do not displace or adversely affect wages or working conditions of U.S. workers. For every H-1B petition filed with the USCIS, there must be included a Labor Condition Application (LCA) (not to be confused with the labor certification), certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. The LCA is designed to ensure that the wage offered to the non-immigrant worker meets or exceeds the "prevailing wage" in the area of employment. ("Immigration law has a number of highly technical terms that may not mean the same thing to the average reader.") The LCA also contains an attestation section designed to prevent the program from being used to import foreign workers to break a strike or replace U.S. citizen workers.


title: H-1B visa

text: While an employer is not required to advertise the position before hiring an H-1B non-immigrant pursuant to the H-1B visa approval, the employer must notify the employee representative about the Labor Condition Application (LCA)—or if there is no such representation, the employer must publish the LCA at the workplace and the employer's office. Under the regulations, LCAs are a matter of public record. Corporations hiring H-1B workers are required to make these records available to any member of the public who requests to look at them. Copies of the relevant records are also available from various web sites, including the Department of Labor.


title: H-1B visa

text: The LCA must be filed electronically using Form ETA 9035E. Over the years, the complexity of the form increased from one page in 1997 to three pages in 2008, to five pages as of August 2012.


title: H-1B visa

text: The law requires H-1B workers to be paid the higher of the prevailing wage for the same occupation and geographic location, or the same as the employer pays to similarly situated employees. Other factors, such as age and skill were not permitted to be taken into account for the prevailing wage. Congress changed the program in 2004 to require the Department of Labor to provide four skill-based prevailing wage levels for employers to use. This is the only prevailing wage mechanism the law permits that incorporates factors other than occupation and location.


title: H-1B visa

text: The approval process for these applications are based on employer attestations and documentary evidence submitted. The employer is advised of their liability if they are replacing a U.S. worker.


title: H-1B visa

text: When a H-1B nonimmigrant works with multiple employers, if any of employers fail to file the petition, it is considered as an unauthorized employment and the nonimmigrant fails to maintain the status.


title: H-1B visa

text: In 2007, the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA), reported on two programs, the High Growth Training Initiative and Workforce Innovation Regional Economic Development (WIRED), which have received or will receive $284 million and $260 million, respectively, from H-1B training fees to educate and train U.S. workers.


title: H-1B visa

text: According to the "Seattle Times" $1 billion from H-1B fees have been distributed by the Labor Department to further train the U.S. workforce since 2001.


title: H-1B visa

text: Studies have shown that H-1B visas have welfare-improving effects for Americans, leading to significant wage gains, lower consumer prices, greater innovation, and greater total factor productivity growth. While H-1B visas lead to lower wages and employment for competing U.S. workers, H-1B visas have led to lower prices for consumers, greater output, and improved performance by companies. H-1B visa holders have been associated with greater innovation and economic performance.


title: H-1B visa

text: The H-1B program has been criticized on many grounds. It was the subject of a hearing, "Immigration Reforms Needed to Protect Skilled American Workers," by the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on March 17, 2015. According to Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the committee:


title: H-1B visa

text: According to the editorial board of "The New York Times", speaking in June 2015, loopholes and lax enforcement of the H-1B visa program has resulted in exploitation of both visa holders and American workers.


title: H-1B visa

text: In some cases, rather than being used to hire talented workers not available in the American labor market, the program is being used for outsourcing. Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Charles Grassley of Iowa began introducing "The H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud & Prevention Act" in 2007. According to Durbin, speaking in 2009, "The H-1B visa program should complement the U.S. workforce, not replace it;" "The…program is plagued with fraud and abuse and is now a vehicle for outsourcing that deprives qualified American workers of their jobs." The proposed legislation has been opposed by Compete America, a tech industry lobbying group,


title: H-1B visa

text: In June 2015, ten Senators requested the U.S. Department of Labor open an investigation of outsourcing of technical tasks by Southern California Edison to Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys then laying off 500 technology workers. After a ten-month investigation, the U.S. Department of Labor determined that no charges should be filed against any of the firms.


title: H-1B visa

text: Paul Donnelly, in a 2002 article in "Computerworld", cited Milton Friedman as stating that the H-1B program acts as a subsidy for corporations. Others holding this view include Norman Matloff, who testified to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration on the H-1B subject. Matloff's paper for the "University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform" claims that there has been no shortage of qualified American citizens to fill American computer-related jobs, and that the data offered as evidence of American corporations needing H-1B visas to address labor shortages was erroneous. The United States General Accounting Office found in a report in 2000 that controls on the H-1B program lacked effectiveness. The GAO report's recommendations were subsequently implemented.


title: H-1B visa

text: High-tech companies often cite a tech-worker shortage when asking Congress to raise the annual cap on H-1B visas, and have succeeded in getting various exemptions passed. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), described the situation as a crisis, and the situation was reported on by the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and Washington Post. Employers applied pressure on Congress. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates testified in 2007 on behalf of the expanded visa program on Capitol Hill, "warning of dangers to the U.S. economy if employers can't import skilled workers to fill job gaps." Congress considered a bill to address the claims of shortfall but in the end did not revise the program.


title: H-1B visa

text: According to a study conducted by John Miano and the Center for Immigration Studies, there is no empirical data to support a claim of employee worker shortage. Citing studies from Duke, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Georgetown University and others, critics have also argued that in some years, the number of foreign programmers and engineers imported outnumbered the number of jobs created by the industry. Hire Americans First has also posted hundreds of first hand accounts of H-1B visa harm reports directly from individuals negatively impacted by the program, many of whom are willing to speak with the media. A study by economist Morgan Raux found that domestic employers are 28 percent more likely to apply for an H-1B visa when job postings are posted for longer periods of time. That effect is stronger in engineering and computer science applications, where employers are 50 percent more likely to apply for visas.


title: H-1B visa

text: Studies carried out from the 1990s through 2011 by researchers from Columbia U, Computing Research Association (CRA), Duke U, Georgetown U, Harvard U, National Research Council of the NAS, RAND Corporation, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rutgers U, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Stanford U, SUNY Buffalo, UC Davis, UPenn Wharton School, Urban Institute, and U.S. Dept. of Education Office of Education Research & Improvement have reported that the U.S. has been producing sufficient numbers of able and willing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workers, while several studies from Hal Salzman, B. Lindsay Lowell, Daniel Kuehn, Michael Teitelbaum and others have concluded that the U.S. has been employing only 30% to 50% of its newly degreed able and willing STEM workers to work in STEM fields. A 2012 IEEE announcement of a conference on STEM education funding and job markets stated "only about half of those with under-graduate STEM degrees actually work in the STEM-related fields after college, and after 10 years, only some 8% still do."


title: H-1B visa

text: Ron Hira, a professor of public policy at Howard University and a longtime critic of the H-1B visa program, recently called the IT talent shortage "imaginary," a front for companies that want to hire relatively inexpensive foreign guest workers.


title: H-1B visa

text: Wage depression is a chronic complaint critics have about the H-1B program. The Department of Homeland Security annual report indicates that H-1B workers in the field of Computer Science are paid a mean salary of $75,000 annually (2014) almost 25,000 dollars below the average annual income for software developers and studies have found that H-1B workers are paid significantly less than U.S. workers. It is claimed that the H-1B program is primarily used as a source of cheap labor. A paper by George J. Borjas for the National Bureau of Economic Research found that "a 10 percent immigration-induced increase in the supply of doctorates lowers the wage of competing workers by about 3 to 4 percent." A 2016 study found that H-1B visas kept wages for U.S. computer scientists 2.6% to 5.1% lower, and employment in computer science for U.S. workers 6.1% to 10.8% lower, but resulted in greater production efficiency, lowered the prices of IT products, raised the output of IT products and caused substantially higher profits for IT firms.


title: H-1B visa

text: The Labor Condition Application (LCA) included in the H-1B petition is supposed to ensure that H-1B workers are paid the prevailing wage in the labor market, or the employer's actual average wage (whichever is higher), but evidence exists that some employers do not abide by these provisions and avoid paying the actual prevailing wage despite stiff penalties for abusers.


title: H-1B visa

text: Theoretically, the LCA process appears to offer protection to both U.S. and H-1B workers. However, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office, enforcement limitations and procedural problems render these protections ineffective. Ultimately, the employer, not the Department of Labor, determines what sources determine the prevailing wage for an offered position, and it may choose among a variety of competing surveys, including its own wage surveys, provided that such surveys follow certain defined rules and regulations.


title: H-1B visa

text: The law specifically restricts the Department of Labor's approval process of LCAs to checking for "completeness and obvious inaccuracies." In FY 2005, only about 800 LCAs were rejected out of over 300,000 submitted. Hire Americans First has posted several hundred first hand accounts of individuals negatively impacted by the program.


title: H-1B visa

text: According to attorney John Miano, the H-1B prevailing wage requirement is "rife" with loopholes. Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, compiled the median wage in 2005 for new H-1B information technology (IT), these wages were found to $50,000, lower than starting wages for IT graduates with a B.S. degree. The U.S. government OES office's data indicates that 90% of H-1B IT wages were below the median U.S. wage and 62% in the 25th percentile for the same occupation.


title: H-1B visa

text: In 2002, the U.S. government began an investigation into Sun Microsystems' hiring practices after an ex-employee, Guy Santiglia, filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Labor alleging that the Santa Clara firm discriminates against American citizens in favor of foreign workers on H-1B visas. Santiglia accused the company of bias against U.S. citizens when it laid off 3,900 workers in late 2001 and at the same time applied for thousands of visas. In 2002, about 5 percent of Sun's 39,000 employees had temporary work visas, he said. In 2005, it was decided that Sun violated only minor requirements and that neither of these violations was substantial or willful. Thus, the judge only ordered Sun to change its posting practices.


title: H-1B visa

text: The H-1B visa became an issue in the 2016 United States presidential election. According to "Computerworld", candidate Donald Trump took a stance to "pause" and re-write the H-1B system. Additionally, during some of his rallies he invited guest speakers to raise awareness of the hundreds of IT workers who were displaced by H-1B guest workers. Candidate Hillary Clinton spoke negatively of H-1B workers being hired because they are less expensive and since they are reliant on the employer, more likely to be compliant during abuse. Clinton said that she was unlikely to consider the H-1B system individually and only would look towards reforms as part of a comprehensive immigration reform.


title: H-1B visa

text: Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders opposed guest worker programs and was also skeptical about skilled immigrant (H-1B) visas, saying, "Last year, the top 10 employers of H-1B guest workers were all offshore outsourcing companies. These firms are responsible for shipping large numbers of American information technology jobs to India and other countries." In an interview with "Vox" he stated his opposition to an open borders immigration policy, describing it as:


title: H-1B visa

text: ...a right-wing proposal, which says essentially there is no United States...you're doing away with the concept of a nation-state. What right-wing people in this country would love is an open-border policy. Bring in all kinds of people, work for $2 or $3 an hour, that would be great for them. I don't believe in that. I think we have to raise wages in this country, I think we have to do everything we can to create millions of jobs.


title: H-1B visa

text: Historically, H-1B holders have sometimes been described as indentured servants, and while the comparison is no longer as compelling, it had more validity prior to the passage of American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000. Indeed, guest workers on H-1B visas in the IT sector have a significant degree of inter-firm mobility. Although immigration generally requires short- and long-term visitors to disavow any ambition to seek the green card (permanent residency), H-1B visa holders are an important exception, in that the H-1B is legally acknowledged as a possible step towards a green card under what is called the doctrine of dual intent.


title: H-1B visa

text: H-1B visa holders may be sponsored for their green cards by their employers through an Application for Alien Labor Certification, filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. In the past, the sponsorship process has taken several years, and for much of that time the H-1B visa holder was unable to change jobs without losing their place in line for the green card. This created an element of enforced loyalty to an employer by an H-1B visa holder. Critics alleged that employers benefit from this enforced loyalty because it reduced the risk that the H-1B employee might leave the job and go work for a competitor, and that it put citizen workers at a disadvantage in the job market, since the employer has less assurance that the citizen will stay at the job for an extended period of time, especially if the work conditions are tough, wages are lower or the work is difficult or complex. It has been argued that this makes the H-1B program extremely attractive to employers, and that labor legislation in this regard has been influenced by corporations seeking and benefiting from such advantages.


title: H-1B visa

text: Some recent news reports suggest that the recession that started in 2008 will exacerbate the H-1B visa situation, both for supporters of the program and for those who oppose it. The process to obtain the green card has become so long that during these recession years it has not been unusual that sponsoring companies fail and disappear, thus forcing the H-1B employee to find another sponsor, and lose their place in line for the green card. An H-1B employee could be just one month from obtaining their green card, but if the employee is laid off, he or she may have to leave the country, or go to the end of the line and start over the process to get the green card, and wait as much as 15 more years, depending on the nationality and visa category.


title: H-1B visa

text: The American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000 provides some relief for people waiting for a long time for a green card, by allowing H-1B extensions past the normal 6 years, as well as by making it easier to change the sponsoring employer.


title: H-1B visa

text: Some workers who come to the U.S. on H-1B visas receive poor, unfair, and illegal treatment by brokers who place them with jobs in the US, according to a report published in 2014. The United States Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2013 was passed to help protect the rights of foreign workers in the United States, and the U.S. Department of State distributes pamphlets to inform foreign workers of their rights.


title: H-1B visa

text: In his floor statement on H-1B visa reform, Senator Dick Durbin stated "The H-1B job visa lasts for three years and can be renewed for three years. What happens to those workers after that? Well, they could stay. It is possible. But these new companies have a much better idea for making money. They send the engineers to America to fill spots—and get money to do it—and then after the three to six years, they bring them back to work for the companies that are competing with American companies. They call it their outsourcing visa. They are sending their talented engineers to learn how Americans do business and then bring them back and compete with those American companies." Critics of H-1B use for outsourcing have also noted that more H-1B visas are granted to companies headquartered in India than companies headquartered in the United States.


title: H-1B visa

text: Of all computer systems analysts and programmers on H-1B visas in the U.S., 74 percent were from Asia. This large scale migration of Asian IT professionals to the United States has been cited as a central cause for the quick emergence of the offshore outsourcing industry.


title: H-1B visa

text: In FY 2009, due to the worldwide recession, applications for H-1B visas by offshore outsourcing firms were significantly lower than in previous years, yet 110,367 H-1B visas were issued, and 117,409 were issued in FY2010.


title: H-1B visa

text: If an employer lays off an H-1B worker, the employer is required to pay for the laid-off worker's transportation outside the United States.


title: H-1B visa

text: If an H-1B worker is laid off or quits, the worker has a grace period of 60 days or until the I-94 expiration date, whichever is shorter, to find a new employer or leave the country.


title: H-1B visa

text: There also is a 10-day grace period for an H-1B worker to depart the United States at the end of his/her authorized period of stay. This grace period only applies if the worker works until the H-1B expiration date listed on his/her I-797 approval notice, or I-94 card.


title: H-1B visa

text: There have been cases where employers used the program to replace their American employees with H-1B employees, and in some of those cases, the American employees were even ordered to train their replacements.


title: H-1B visa

text: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services "H-1B Benefit Fraud & Compliance Assessment" of September 2008 concluded 21% of H-1B visas granted originate from fraudulent applications or applications with technical violations. Fraud was defined as a willful misrepresentation, falsification, or omission of a material fact. Technical violations, errors, omissions, and failures to comply that are not within the fraud definition were included in the 21% rate.


title: H-1B visa

text: In 2009, federal authorities arrested people for a nationwide H-1B visa scam in which they allegedly submitted false statements and documents in connection with petitions for H-1B visas.


title: H-1B visa

text: Fraud has included acquisition of a fake university degree for the prospective H-1B worker, coaching the worker on lying to consul officials, hiring a worker for which there is no U.S. job, charging the worker money to be hired, benching the worker with no pay, and taking a cut of the worker's U.S. salary. The workers, who have little choice in the matter, are also engaged in fraud, and may be charged, fined, and deported.


title: H-1B visa

text: In addition to H-1B visas, there are a variety of other visa categories that allow foreign workers to come into the U.S. to work for some period of time.


title: H-1B visa

text: L-1 visas are issued to foreign employees of a corporation. Under recent rules, the foreign worker must have worked for the corporation for at least one year in the preceding three years prior to getting the visa. An L-1B visa is appropriate for non-immigrant workers who are being temporarily transferred to the United States based on their specialized knowledge of the company's techniques and methodologies. An L-1A visa is for managers or executives who either manage people or an essential function of the company. There is no requirement to pay prevailing wages for the L-1 visa holders. For Canadian residents, a special L visa category is available.


title: H-1B visa

text: TN-1 visas are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and are issued to Canadian and Mexican citizens. TN visas are only available to workers who fall into one of a preset list of occupations determined by the NAFTA treaty. There are specific eligibility requirements for the TN Visa.


title: H-1B visa

text: H-1B1 visas are a sub-set of H-1B issued to residents of Chile and Singapore. H-1B1 visas for residents of Chile was part of the Chile–United States Free Trade Agreement; PL 108-77 Section 402(a)(2)(B), 117 Stat. 909, 940; S 1416, HR 2738, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on July 24, 2003. H-1B1 visas for residents of Singapore was part of the Singapore–United States Free Trade Agreement, PL 108-78 Section 402(2), 117 Stat. 948, 970-971; S 1417, HR 2739, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on July 24, 2003, passed the U.S. Senate on July 31, 2003, and signed by President George W. Bush on May 6, 2003. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, if there are any unused H-1B1 visas during a particular year, that number is added to the following year's H-1B base quota.


title: H-1B visa

text: One recent trend in work visas is that various countries attempt to get special preference for their nationals as part of treaty negotiations. Another trend is for changes in immigration law to be embedded in large Authorization or Omnibus bills to avoid the controversy that might accompany a separate vote.


title: H-1B visa

text: H-2B visa: The H-2B non-immigrant program permits employers to hire foreign workers to come to the U.S. and perform temporary non-agricultural work, which may be one-time, seasonal, peak load or intermittent. There is a 66,000 per year limit on the number of foreign workers who may receive H-2B status.


title: H-1B visa

text: An individual with a valid H-1B visa does not need a visa to enter Costa Rica for tourism for up to 30 days. The H-1B visa must be stamped in the passport and be valid for at least six months. The passport needs to be valid for at least six months after entering Costa Rica.


title: H-1B visa

text: Danielle Goldman, Co-Founder & Executive Director at Open Avenues, who has successfully granted H1B visa to many international students, shared some "legal loopholes" tricks to secure more sponsorship opportunities on her Babson College's MSEL Law class visit in April 2022. Her business, Open Avenues, as a non-profit organization affiliated with universities which is operated under the 501c3 regulation, allows her to help most international students secured H1B visa even if Open Avenues are technically not their employers (a legal loophole). Unlike most employers (for profit companies) that have maximum H1B sponsor quotas, Open Avenues do not. Companies approach Open Avenues and pay them a certain fee. Then, the proposed employee will "have to work" at least 5 hours a week for Open Avenues (theoretically, they work for their real employers, but the real employer will pay Open Avenues 5 hours a week of that employee's wages to be distributed as an income retribution). This legal loopholes allow for easier pathway for most international students to work in the United States for longer period of time under the H1B visa sponsorship without having feared on not being granted one.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Frito-Lay is an American subsidiary of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets, and sells corn chips, potato chips, and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips, Lay's and Ruffles potato chips, Rold Gold pretzels, and Walkers potato crisps (in the UK and Ireland). Each brand generated annual worldwide sales over $1 billion in 2009.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Frito-Lay began in the early 1930s as two separate companies, "The Frito Company" and "H.W. Lay & Company", which merged in 1961 to form "Frito-Lay, Inc". In 1965, Frito-Lay, Inc. merged with the Pepsi-Cola Company, resulting in the formation of PepsiCo. Since then, Frito-Lay has operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. Through Frito-Lay, PepsiCo is the largest globally distributed snack food company, with sales of its products in 2009 comprising 40 percent of all "savory snacks" sold in the United States, and 30 percent of the non-U.S. market. In 2018, Frito-Lay North America accounted for 25 percent of PepsiCo's annual sales.


title: Frito-Lay

text: In 1932, Kansas City, Kansas-born Charles Elmer Doolin, manager of the Highland Park Confectionery in San Antonio, Texas, purchased a corn chip recipe, a handheld potato ricer, and 19 retail accounts from a corn chip manufacturer for $100, which he borrowed from his mother. Doolin established a new corn chip business, The Frito Company, in his mother's kitchen. Doolin, with his mother and brother, produced the corn chips, now named Fritos, and had a production capacity of approximately 10 pounds per day and roughly 30 cents per product. Doolin distributed the Fritos in 5¢ bags. Daily sales totaled $8 to $10 and profits averaged about $2 per day. In 1933 the production of Fritos increased from 10 pounds to nearly 100 pounds due to the development of a hammer press. By the end of the year, production lines were operating in Houston and Dallas. The Frito Company headquarters also moved to Dallas to capitalize on the city's central location and better availability of raw materials. In 1937 The Frito Company opened its research and development lab and introduced new products, including Fritos Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Fritos Peanuts, to supplement Fritos and Fritatos Potato chips, which had been introduced in 1935.


title: Frito-Lay

text: In 1939, the company purchased Fluffs pork skins and incorporated the Dallas business. Frito relocated the operation from Haskell Avenue to a new facility at 2005 Wall Street. Alice Rupe, who was one of Fluffs' original six all-woman crew, was placed in charge of operations. In 1940, she was named assistant treasurer and manager; in 1949 she was promoted to treasurer.


title: Frito-Lay

text: In 1941, the company opened its western division in Los Angeles with two sales routes, which would become the prototype for The Frito Company's distribution system. In 1945, The Frito Sales Company was established to separate sales from production activities. Expansion continued with the issue of six franchises through the Frito National Company in the same year. In 1950, Fritos were sold in all 48 states. The Frito Company issued its first public stock in 1954. In 1958, Frito entered the Midwest potato chip market by acquiring the Nicolay Dancey Company, which made New Era potato chips. At the time of Doolin's death in 1959, The Frito Company produced over 40 products, had plants in 18 cities, employed over 3,000 people, and had sales in 1958 in excess of $50 million. By 1962, Fritos were sold in 48 countries.


title: Frito-Lay

text: In 1931, Charlotte, North Carolina-born salesman Herman Lay (1909–1982) sold potato chips in the Southern United States out of his car. In 1932, he began a potato chip business in Nashville, Tennessee. Lay was hired as a salesman for the Barrett Food Products Company, an Atlanta, Georgia, manufacturer of Gardner's Potato Chips, and eventually took over Barrett's Nashville warehouse as a distributor. Lay hired his first salesman in 1934, and three years later had 25 employees and a larger manufacturing facility where he produced popcorn and peanut butter sandwich crackers.


title: Frito-Lay

text: A representative of the Barrett Food Company contacted Lay in 1938, offering to sell Barrett's plants in Atlanta and Memphis to Lay for $60,000. Lay borrowed $30,000 from a bank and persuaded the Barrett Company to take the difference in preferred stock. Lay moved his headquarters to Atlanta and formed H.W. Lay & Company in 1939. He later purchased the Barrett manufacturing plant in Jacksonville, Florida, along with additional plants in Jackson, Mississippi; Louisville, Kentucky; and Greensboro, North Carolina. Lay retained the Gardner trademark of Barrett Food Products until 1944, when the product name was changed to Lay's Potato Chips.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Lay expanded further in the 1950s, with the purchase of The Richmond Potato Chip Company and the Capitol Frito Corporation. By 1956, with more than 1,000 employees, plants in eight cities, and branches or warehouses in thirteen others, H.W. Lay & Company was the largest manufacturer of potato chips and snack foods in the United States.


title: Frito-Lay

text: In 1945, The Frito Company granted H.W. Lay & Company an exclusive franchise to manufacture and distribute Fritos in the Southeast. The two companies worked toward national distribution and developed a close business affiliation. In September 1961, The Frito Company and H.W. Lay & Company merged to become Frito-Lay, Inc., combining their headquarters in Dallas, Texas. At this point, the company's annual revenues totaled $127 million, largely generated from sales of its four main brands at the time: Fritos, Lay's, Cheetos, and Ruffles.


title: Frito-Lay

text: In February 1965, the boards of directors for Frito-Lay, Inc. and Pepsi-Cola announced a plan for the merger of the two companies. On June 8, 1965, the merger of Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola Company was approved by shareholders of both companies, and a new company called PepsiCo, Inc. was formed. At the time of the merger, Frito-Lay owned 46 manufacturing plants nationwide and had more than 150 distribution centers across the United States.


title: Frito-Lay

text: The merger was pursued for multiple factors, one of which was the potential for Frito-Lay snacks to be distributed outside of its initial markets of the United States and Canada—via Pepsi-Cola's existing presence and distribution network in 108 countries at the time of the merger. International distribution of Frito-Lay products expanded soon after the 1965 merger, and its U.S. presence grew at the same time, resulting in Lay's becoming the first potato chip brand to be sold nationwide (in all 50 U.S. states) in 1965.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Also at this time, PepsiCo had envisioned marketing Frito-Lay snacks alongside Pepsi-Cola soft drinks. In an interview with "Forbes" in 1968, PepsiCo CEO Donald Kendall summarized this by noting that "Potato chips make you thirsty; Pepsi satisfies thirst." Plans to jointly promote the soft drink and snack products were thwarted later that year, when the Federal Trade Commission ruled against it.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Upon the formation of PepsiCo, Frito-Lay soon began efforts to expand with the development of new snack food brands in the 1960s and 1970s, including Doritos (1966), Funyuns (1969), and Munchos (1971). The most popular new Frito-Lay product launched during this era was Doritos, which initially was positioned as a more flavorful tortilla chip. At first, the chip was perceived by consumers as being too bland. In response, the company re-launched Doritos in Taco, and later Nacho Cheese, flavors. The spicier composition proved successful, and Doritos quickly became the second most popular Frito-Lay product line, second only to Lay's potato chips.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Frito-Lay faced increased competition in the 1970s from potato chip brands such as Pringles, launched by Procter & Gamble (but now owned by Kellogg's) in competition with Lay's. Nabisco and Standard Brands also expanded in the 1970s to produce potato chips, cheese curls and pretzels, which placed added pressure across Frito-Lay's entire line of snack food brands.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Frito-Lay acquired GrandMa's Cookies in 1980, originally founded by Foster Wheeler in Portland, Oregon in 1914, which launched nationwide in the United States in 1983. In January 1978, Frito-Lay's product development group led by Jack Liczkowski completed development of Tostitos, a Mexican-style tortilla chip lineup. Tostitos Traditional Flavor and Tostitos Nacho Cheese Flavor went into national distribution in the United States by 1980 and reached the sales of $140 million, making it one of the most successful new products introduction in Frito-Lay history. Tostitos sales grew quickly, and in 1985 it had become Frito-Lay's fifth-largest brand, generating annual sales of $200 million. Ahead of Tostitos at the time were Doritos, Lay's, Fritos, and Ruffles, each recording annual sales between $250 and $500 million. While Tostitos became a long-term success, several other new products launched in the 1980s were discontinued after lackluster results. These short lived Frito-Lay products included Stuffers pre-filled dip shells and Toppels crackers, which came pre-topped with cheese. In the late 1980s, Frito-Lay acquired Smartfood, a brand of cheese-flavored popcorn which it began to distribute across the United States. International sales began to increase significantly at this time as well, with annual revenues from sales outside of the U.S. and Canada accounting for $500 million in 1989, contributing to total Frito-Lay sales of $3.5 billion in the same year. In Canada, Frito-Lay began a partnership with General Foods-owned Hostess Food Products in 1987, before merging in 1988 to become The Hostess Frito-Lay Company.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Several new products were developed internally at Frito-Lay and launched in the 1990s, the most successful of which was Sun Chips, a multi-grain chip first sold in 1991. Sun Chips, along with new Baked (instead of fried) variants of Tostitos and Lay's, represented Frito-Lay's intent to capitalize on an emerging trend among adults in the U.S., who were displaying a growing preference for healthier snack alternatives. In 1994, Frito-Lay recorded annual retail sales of nearly $5 billion, selling 8 billion bags of chips, popcorn, and pretzels during that year—outpacing competitors Eagle (owned by Anheuser-Busch) and Wise (owned by Borden).


title: Frito-Lay

text: Up until the mid-1990s, Frito-Lay was represented in PepsiCo's organizational structure as Frito-Lay, a single division of PepsiCo. This changed in 1996 when PepsiCo merged its snack food operations into what was titled the "Frito-Lay Company", made up of two subsequent divisions, "Frito-Lay North America" and "Frito-Lay International". In 1992, Frito-Lay acquired full ownership of Hostess Food Products from General Foods, followed in 1997 by the acquisition of candied popcorn snack brand Cracker Jack, and in 1998 by multiple international acquisitions and joint ventures, including Smith's Snackfood Company (Australia), as well as Savoy Brands (Latin America).


title: Frito-Lay

text: In the early 1980s, PepsiCo continued to grow its Frito-Lay brands in two ways—through international expansion and acquisition. Through a joint-venture with Walkers, a UK chip and snack manufacturing company, Frito-Lay increased its distribution presence in Europe. Similar joint-ventures were arranged in other regions of the world in the 2000s, including Smith's in Australia, and Sabritas and Gamesa in Mexico. As a result of these international arrangements, some global Frito-Lay products (such as Doritos) are branded under the same name worldwide. Others maintain their original regional names. For example, Lay's chips are a similar product to Walkers Crisps in the UK and both share similar logo designs.


title: Frito-Lay

text: The Quaker Oats Company merged with PepsiCo in 2001, resulting in Quaker snacks products, including Chewy granola bars, Gatorade, and Quaker rice cakes, becoming organized under the Frito-Lay North America operating division. This operating structure was short-lived, and in 2003, as part of a restructuring, the international operations of Frito-Lay (formerly Frito-Lay International) were brought within the PepsiCo International division, while Frito-Lay North America was maintained as its own division, comprising Frito-Lay business within the United States and Canada.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Frito-Lay continued to experiment with changes to the composition of its products, introducing Reduced Fat Lay's and Cheetos in 2002. The "Baked" product line also expanded in 2002 to include Baked Doritos. In 2003, Frito-Lay introduced the first products in its "Natural" line, which were made with ingredients that had been organically produced. The first of these included Organic Blue Corn Tostitos, Natural Lay's Potato Chips (seasoned with sea salt), and Natural Cheetos White Cheddar Puffs.


title: Frito-Lay

text: A new CEO, Irene Rosenfeld, was appointed in 2005. Under her management, Frito-Lay North America continued to expand its product lines with acquisitions such as Stacy's Pita Chip Company, which represented "Frito-Lay's desire to participate more broadly in the $90 billion macrosnack category", particularly involving snack foods made with more natural ingredients, according to reports from within its industry at that time. In 2010, Frito-Lay reformulated Lay's Kettle and Lay's flavored chips into a new variant labeled as being made with all-natural ingredients. Sales of Lay's potato chips grew by 8% following the change to all-natural ingredients. As a result, Frito-Lay announced in 2010 its plans to convert approximately half of all Frito-Lay products, including Sun Chips, Tostitos, Fritos, and Rold Gold pretzels, to all-natural ingredients in 2011.


title: Frito-Lay

text: In 1967, the company introduced a cartoon spokesman, the Frito Bandito, which became the subject of criticism from Mexican-American groups, who expressed concerns that it portrayed a Mexican stereotype. The Frito Bandito (voiced by Mel Blanc) wore a sombrero and bandoliers, had a handlebar moustache, and brandished pistols. Protests from advocacy groups such as The National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee (NMAADC) prompted some initial concessions, such as the removal of the pistols and a thinning of the accent. The Frito Bandito was replaced in 1970 by The Muncha Bunch, and then again by a new cartoon called W.C. Fritos (based on W. C. Fields).


title: Frito-Lay

text: In the late 1990s, the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) was rising as a farming practice, as it made for the growth of larger (and thus less expensive to produce) corn crops. Frito-Lay, due in part to its leverage as one of the world's largest purchasers of corn, became the target of lobbying efforts from both proponents and opponents of GMOs. In late 1999, Frito-Lay asked its suppliers not to use genetically engineered corn. A similar announcement followed in early 2000, when the company asked its farmers not to grow genetically modified potatoes. Frito-Lay stated these requests were made in response to consumers' worries, and not in response to protests by the OCA, Greenpeace or other groups. A representative of Greenpeace expressed the perspective that this move was a positive step, stating, "Frito-Lay is about two-thirds of PepsiCo's sales. They realize the handwriting is on the wall and that people don't want to eat GMOs".


title: Frito-Lay

text: PepsiCo is dedicated to producing the highest quality, greatest tasting food and beverage products in every part of the world. PepsiCo ensures all products meet or exceed stringent safety and quality standards and uses only ingredients that are safe and approved by applicable government and regulatory authorities.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Approval of genetically-modified foods differs from country to country regarding both use and labeling. For this reason, PepsiCo adheres to all relevant regulatory requirements regarding the use of genetically-modified food crops and food ingredients within the countries it operates.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Where legally approved, individual business units may choose to use or not use genetically-modified ingredients based on regional preferences."


title: Frito-Lay

text: Amid rising concerns over fat intake and trans-fat, fat content was reduced and trans-fats were eliminated from Doritos, Tostitos, and Cheetos in 2004. The composition of Ruffles, Lay's, and Fritos were not changed as these products had always been free of trans-fat.


title: Frito-Lay

text: In July 2021, Frito-Lay became subject to media attention over poor working conditions at its plant in Topeka. These conditions, which allegedly include forced overtime and 84-hour workweeks, led to a strike involving hundreds of workers at the Topeka location. The strike began on July 5 and ceased on July 23, 2021.


title: Frito-Lay

text: As of 2010, Frito-Lay operates production plants, distribution centers, and regional offices in more than 40 countries, with its "Frito-Lay North America" headquarters residing in Plano, Texas. Within North America, Frito-Lay owns (and in some cases, leases) approximately 1,830 distribution centers, warehouses and offices. The division also maintains 55 production plants. Its chief executive officer is Steven Williams.


title: Frito-Lay

text: "PepsiCo Americas Foods" consists of PepsiCo's food and snack operations in North and South America. This operating division is further segmented into Frito-Lay North America, Sabritas, Gamesa, and Latin America Foods. It also contains Quaker Foods North America, although no Frito-Lay products are sold or distributed under that business unit. Food and snack sales in North and South America combined made up 48 percent of PepsiCo's net revenue as of 2009.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Frito-Lay North America Inc. is the division which controls Frito-Lay product research and development, sales, and distribution within the U.S. and Canada. Its primary brands include Lay's and Ruffles potato chips, Doritos tortilla chips, Tostitos tortilla chips and dips, Cheetos cheese flavored snacks, Fritos corn chips, Rold Gold pretzels, Sun Chips, and Cracker Jack popcorn. Products made by this division are sold to independent distributors and retailers, and are transported from Frito-Lay's manufacturing plants to distribution centers, primarily in vehicles owned and operated by the company.


title: Frito-Lay

text: "Sabritas" and "Gamesa" are two of PepsiCo's food and snack business lines headquartered in Mexico, and they were acquired by PepsiCo in 1966 and 1990, respectively. Sabritas markets Frito-Lay products, such as Cheetos, Fritos, Doritos, and Ruffles, in Mexico. It also distributes local brands such as Poffets, Rancheritos, Crujitos, and Sabritones. Gamesa is the largest manufacturer of cookies in Mexico, distributing brands such as Emperador, Arcoiris, and Marías Gamesa.


title: Frito-Lay

text: PepsiCo's "Latin Americas Foods" sells Frito-Lay branded snack foods in Central and South America. Its portfolio of brands includes Lay's, Cheetos, Ruffles, and Doritos, as well as local brands such as Fandangos, Lucky, Stiksy, Pingo d'Ouro, Baconzitos and Torcida snacks in Brazil (sold under the brand "Elma Chips") and ManiMoto in Colombia.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Frito-Lay snacks are distributed in Europe under the "PepsiCo Europe" operating division, previously PepsiCo International. Products include: Walkers Crisps, Doritos, Paw Ridge, Smiths, Cheetos, Duyvis, Snack-a-Jacks, Twistos, and Solinki. PepsiCo maintains manufacturing plants in Europe, the largest of which are two snack manufacturing and processing plants located in Leicester and Coventry in England.


title: Frito-Lay

text: Frito-Lay products sold under the "PepsiCo Asia, Middle East & Africa" division represent the smallest (as of 2010) proportion on a revenue basis. However, its distribution is growing more quickly than Frito-Lay's primary markets. While the primary global Frito-Lay brands are sold in some parts of these regions, many snack food products have been created to match local taste and cultural preferences. In India, one of these is Kurkure Twisteez, a potato-based snack food produced in flavors popular in the country such as "Masala Munch". Frito-Lay has also employed alternate distribution means in these regions. In South Africa, it hired delivery drivers who had grown up in their delivery areas, with the intent of "making the product seem less foreign".


title: Frito-Lay

text: While the product catalog varies significantly by country, PepsiCo divides its snack products into two primary brand categories: those produced within North America, and those produced outside of North America. In certain regions of the world, the company's snack food products are produced under regionally specific names such as Sabritas, Elma Chips and Walkers. The primary snack food brands and products produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips, Lay's potato chips, Ruffles chips, and Walker's potato crisps (distributed in the UK and Ireland under the Walker's brand and in the rest of Europe under the Lay's brand)—each of which generated annual worldwide sales over $1 billion in 2009. Frito-Lay also comprises multiple brands outside of the chip category, including Rold Gold pretzels, Cracker Jack popcorn snacks, and TrueNorth nut clusters and nut crisps. In India, Frito-Lay uses its international brands as well as Uncle Chipps, a homegrown brand that it bought out in 2000. Kurkure, an Indian snack developed and produced by PepsiCo India, announced on March 31 that it was now available in Canada, UAE, and the Gulf region as well. Also, in Poland, there is a subsidiary brand called 'Star Chips' (a snack company). A Polish version of Lay's also exists in the country, based in Grodzisk Mazowiecki.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years. Buckley began his career based in folk music, but his subsequent albums experimented with jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, the avant-garde, and an evolving voice-as-instrument sound. He died at the age of 28 from a heroin and morphine overdose, leaving behind sons Taylor and Jeff.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Tim Buckley was born in Washington, D.C. on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1947, to Elaine (née Scalia), an Italian American, and Timothy Charles Buckley Jr., a decorated World War II veteran and son of Irish immigrants from Cork. He spent his early childhood in Amsterdam, New York, an industrial city about northwest of Albany. At five years old, Buckley began listening to his mother's progressive jazz recordings, particularly Miles Davis.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Buckley's musical life began after his family moved to Bell Gardens in southern California in 1956. His grandmother introduced him to the work of Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, his mother to Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland and his father to the country music of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. When the folk music revolution came around in the early 1960s, Buckley taught himself the banjo at age 13, and with several friends formed a folk group inspired by the Kingston Trio that played local high school events.


title: Tim Buckley

text: During high school, Buckley was elected to class offices, played on the baseball team and quarterbacked the football team. During a football game, he broke two fingers on his left hand, permanently damaging them. He said that the injury prevented him from playing barre chords. This disability may have led to his use of extended chords, many of which don't require barres. However, this disability claim seems to be invalidated because Buckley's performance on the final episode of the television show, "The Monkees", broadcast on March 25, 1968, clearly shows Buckley using a barre chord while performing "Song to the Siren" on an out-of-tune 12-string guitar.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Buckley attended Loara High School in Anaheim, California. He cut classes regularly and quit football, focusing most of his attention on music. He befriended Larry Beckett, his future lyricist, and Jim Fielder, a bass player with whom he formed two musical groups, the Bohemians, who initially played popular music, and the Harlequin 3, a folk group which regularly incorporated spoken word and beat poetry into their gigs.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Buckley and lyricist/friend Beckett wrote dozens of songs, some that appeared on Tim's debut album, "Tim Buckley". "Buzzin' Fly" was written during this period and was featured on "Happy Sad", his 1969 LP.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Buckley's college career at Fullerton College lasted two weeks in 1965. After dropping out of college, Buckley dedicated himself fully to music and playing L.A. folk clubs. During the summer of 1965, he played regularly at a club co-founded by Dan Gordon. He played Orange County coffeehouses such as the White Room in Buena Park and the Monday-night hootenannies at the Los Angeles Troubadour. That year, "Cheetah" magazine deemed Buckley one of "The Orange County Three", along with Steve Noonan and Jackson Browne.


title: Tim Buckley

text: In February 1966, following a gig at It's Boss, the Mothers of Invention's drummer Jimmy Carl Black recommended Buckley to the Mothers' manager, Herb Cohen. Cohen saw potential in Tim and landed him an extended gig at the Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village at West 3rd and MacDougal. Buckley's girlfriend, Jainie Goldstein, drove him to New York. While living in the Bowery with Jainie, Buckley ran into Lee Underwood and asked him to play guitar for him. The two became lifelong friends and collaborators.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Under Cohen's management, Buckley recorded a six-song demo acetate disc which he sent to Elektra records owner Jac Holzman, who offered him a recording contract.


title: Tim Buckley

text: In August 1966, Buckley recorded his self-titled debut album in three days in Los Angeles. He was often unhappy with his albums after they were recorded and described his debut album as "like Disneyland". The record featured Buckley and a band of Underwood and Orange County friends. Underwood's mix of jazz and country improvisation on a Telecaster guitar became a distinctive part of Buckley's early sound. Jac Holzman and Paul Rothchild's production and Jack Nitzsche's string arrangements cemented the record's mid-'60s sound.


title: Tim Buckley

text: The album's folk-rock style was typical of the time, although many people, including Underwood, felt the strings by Nitzsche "did not enhance its musical quality." Critics took note of Buckley's distinctive voice and tuneful compositions.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Underwood considered the record to be "a first effort, naive, stiff, quaky and innocent [but] a ticket into the marketplace". Holzman expressed similar sentiments and thought Buckley wasn't comfortable in his own musical skin. Larry Beckett suggested the band's desire to please audiences held it back.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Elektra released two singles promoting the debut album, "Wings" with "Grief in My Soul" as the B-side, and "Aren't You the Girl"/"Strange Street Affair Under Blue." Buckley followed with "Once Upon a Time" and "Lady Give Me Your Key", which were not well regarded but showed potential. Elektra decided not to release the songs as singles, and the songs remained in Elektra's record vaults. Rhino Records was unable to find "Lady Give Me Your Key" to include on its "", but the song was the title track on Light in the Attic Records' 2017 collection of the previously unissued 1967 acoustic sessions. "Once Upon A Time" surfaced on Rhino's "Where The Action Is 1965–68 Los Angeles" anthology in 2009.


title: Tim Buckley

text: "Goodbye and Hello", released in 1967, featured late 1960s-style poetry and songs in different timings, and was an ambitious release for the 20-year-old Buckley. Reflecting the confidence Elektra had in Buckley and group, they were given free rein on the content of the album. Beckett continued as lyricist and the album consisted of Buckley originals and Beckett–Buckley collaborations. Critics noted the improved lyrical and melodic qualities of Buckley's music. Buckley's voice had developed since his last release and the press appreciated both his lower register and falsetto in equal measure.


title: Tim Buckley

text: The subject of the album distinguished it from its predecessor. Beckett addressed the psychological nature of war in "No Man Can Find the War", and Underwood welcomed Buckley's entry into darker territory with "Pleasant Street". "I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain" represented a confessional lyric to his estranged wife and child, while the mix of introspective folk songs and political-themed content attracted folk fans and anti-war audiences. Holzman had faith in Buckley and rented advertising space for the musician on the Sunset Strip, an unusual step for a solo act. Buckley distanced himself from comparisons to Bob Dylan, expressing an apathy toward Dylan and his work. While "Goodbye and Hello" did not make Buckley a star, it performed better in the charts than his previous effort, peaking at No. 171.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Buckley's higher profile led to his album "The Best of Tim Buckley" being used as a soundtrack to the 1969 film "Changes". Buckley performed "Song to the Siren" on the final episode of "The Monkees". Buckley was wary of the press and often avoided interviews. After a slot on "The Tonight Show", Buckley was standoffish and insulting toward Johnny Carson, and on another television appearance refused to lip sync to "Pleasant Street".


title: Tim Buckley

text: After Beckett was drafted into the Army, Buckley developed his own style, and described the jazz/blues-rock with which he was associated as "white thievery and an emotional sham." Drawing inspiration from jazz greats such as Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Roland Kirk, and vocalist Leon Thomas, Buckley's sound became different from previous recordings.


title: Tim Buckley

text: In 1968, Buckley toured Europe twice, first including Denmark, the Netherlands, and England, appearing e.g. on John Peel's "Top Gear" radio show on the BBC and then appearing at the in Germany, as well as touring England and Denmark again. Later that year, he recorded "Happy Sad", which reflected folk and jazz influences and would be his best-charting album, peaking at No. 81.


title: Tim Buckley

text: During 1969, Buckley began to write and record material for three albums, "Blue Afternoon", "Lorca", and "Starsailor". Inspired by the singing of avant-garde musician Cathy Berberian, he integrated the ideas of composers such as Luciano Berio and Iannis Xenakis in an avant-garde rock genre. Buckley selected eight songs for "Blue Afternoon", an album similar to "Happy Sad" in style. In a 1977 article for "DownBeat" magazine, Lee Underwood wrote that Buckley's heart was not in "Blue Afternoon" and that the album was a perfunctory response to please his business partners.


title: Tim Buckley

text: While Buckley's music never sold well, his following releases did indeed chart. "Lorca" alienated his folk base, while "Blue Afternoon" was criticized as boring and tepid, and "[not] even good sulking music." "Blue Afternoon" was Buckley's last album to chart on "Billboard", reaching No. 192. Following the albums, Buckley began to focus on what he felt to be his masterpiece, "Starsailor".


title: Tim Buckley

text: "Starsailor" contained free jazz textures under Buckley's most extreme vocal performance, ranging from high shrieks to deep, soulful baritone. This personal album included the more accessible "Song to the Siren", a song which has since been covered by This Mortal Coil, Robert Plant, John Frusciante, Bryan Ferry and Brendan Perry. The album was a critical and commercial failure.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Unable to produce his music and almost broke, Buckley turned to alcohol and drug binges. He considered acting and completed an unreleased low-budget film entitled "Why?" (1971). The film was an experimental use of the new medium video tape and was commissioned by Technicolor.


title: Tim Buckley

text: In 1970, Buckley disbanded his "Starsailor" ensemble and assembled a new funk band. He cut three albums, "Greetings from L.A.", "Sefronia" and "Look at the Fool". Buckley had alienated much of his hippie fan base with his previous two albums, and his sexually frank lyrics ("whip me, spank me") prevented the songs from receiving airplay, although he retained a cult following.


title: Tim Buckley

text: In 1975, Buckley engaged the press regarding a live album comeback. He began performing revamped versions of material drawn from his career, except "Starsailor" and "Lorca," in response to his audience, which he had spurned in the past.


title: Tim Buckley

text: On June 28, 1975, Buckley completed a short tour with a show in Dallas, playing to a sold-out crowd of 1,800 people. He celebrated the end of the tour with a weekend of drinking with his band and friends. On the night of June 29, he accompanied longtime friend Richard Keeling to his house. At some point, Keeling produced a bag of heroin, some of which Buckley snorted.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Buckley's friends took him home and, seeing his inebriated state, his wife Judy laid him on the living-room floor and questioned his friends as to what had happened. She moved Buckley into bed. When she checked on him later, she found that he was not breathing and had turned blue. Attempts by friends and paramedics to revive him were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead on arrival.


title: Tim Buckley

text: The coroner's report stated that Buckley died at 9:42 p.m. on June 29, 1975, from "acute heroin/morphine and ethanol intoxication due to inhalation and ingestion of overdose".


title: Tim Buckley

text: Buckley's tour manager, Bob Duffy, said Buckley's death was not expected, but "was like watching a movie, and that was its natural ending."


title: Tim Buckley

text: Other friends saw his passing as predictable, if not inevitable. Beckett recalled how Buckley took chances with his life, including dangerous driving, drinking alcohol, taking pills and heroin.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Given the circumstances of his death, police charged Keeling with murder and distribution of heroin. At his hearing on August 14, 1975, Keeling pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and, after failing to complete community service, was sentenced to 120 days in jail and four years' probation.


title: Tim Buckley

text: Buckley died in debt, owning only a guitar and an amplifier. About 200 friends and family attended his funeral at the Wilshire Funeral Home in Santa Monica, including manager Herb Cohen and Lee Underwood. His 8-year-old son, Jeff, had met his father only once, and was not invited to the funeral. Jeff Buckley said not being invited to his father's funeral "gnawed" at him, and prompted him to pay his respects by performing "I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain" in 1991 at a memorial tribute to Buckley in Brooklyn, six years before his own accidental death.


title: Tim Buckley

text: During French class in 1964, Buckley met Mary Guibert. Their relationship inspired some of Buckley's music, and provided him time away from his turbulent home life. His father suffered a head injury during the war which, along with a severe work-related injury, was said to have affected his mental balance. Buckley and Guibert married on October 25, 1965. The marriage was tumultuous and when Guibert became pregnant, Buckley found himself neither willing nor able to cope with marriage and fatherhood. The couple divorced in October 1966, about a month before their son, Jeff, was born.


title: Tim Buckley

text: In April 1970, Buckley married Judy Brejot Sutcliffe in Santa Monica, and adopted her son, Taylor Keith Sutcliffe.


title: Wiktionary

text: Wiktionary ( , , rhyming with "dictionary") is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary of terms (including words, phrases, proverbs, linguistic reconstructions, etc.) in all natural languages and in a number of artificial languages. These entries may contain definitions, images for illustration, pronunciations, etymologies, inflections, usage examples, quotations, related terms, and translations of terms into other languages, among other features. It is collaboratively edited via a wiki. Its name is a portmanteau of the words "wiki" and "dictionary". It is available in languages and in Simple English. Like its sister project Wikipedia, Wiktionary is run by the Wikimedia Foundation, and is written collaboratively by volunteers, dubbed "Wiktionarians". Its wiki software, MediaWiki, allows almost anyone with access to the website to create and edit entries.


title: Wiktionary

text: Because Wiktionary is not limited by print space considerations, most of Wiktionary's language editions provide definitions and translations of terms from many languages, and some editions offer additional information typically found in thesauri.


title: Wiktionary

text: Wiktionary was brought online on December 12, 2002, following a proposal by Daniel Alston and an idea by Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia. On March 28, 2004, the first non-English Wiktionaries were initiated in French and Polish. Wiktionaries in numerous other languages have since been started. Wiktionary was hosted on a temporary domain name (wiktionary.wikipedia.org) until May 1, 2004, when it switched to the current domain name. , Wiktionary features over 30 million articles (and even more entries) across its editions. The largest of the language editions is the English Wiktionary, with over 7.2 million entries, followed by the French Wiktionary with over 4.5 million and the Malagasy Wiktionary with over 1.7 million entries. Forty-three Wiktionary language editions contain over 100,000 entries each.


title: Wiktionary

text: Many of the definitions at the project's largest language editions were created by bots that found creative ways to generate entries or (rarely) automatically imported thousands of entries from previously published dictionaries. Seven of the 18 bots registered at the English Wiktionary in 2007 created 163,000 of the entries there.


title: Wiktionary

text: Another of these bots, "ThirdPersBot," was responsible for the addition of a number of third-person conjugations that would not have received their own entries in standard dictionaries; for instance, it defined "smoulders" as the "third-person singular simple present form of smoulder." Of the 1,269,938 definitions the English Wiktionary provides for 996,450 English words, 478,068 are "form of" definitions of this kind. This means that even without such entries, its coverage of English is significantly larger than that of major monolingual print dictionaries. "Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged", for instance, has 475,000 entries (with many additional embedded headwords); the "Oxford English Dictionary" has 615,000 headwords, but includes Middle English as well, for which the English Wiktionary has an additional


title: Wiktionary

text: The English Wiktionary does not rely on bots to the extent that some other editions do. The French and Vietnamese Wiktionaries, for example, imported large sections of the Free Vietnamese Dictionary Project (FVDP), which provides free content bilingual dictionaries to and from Vietnamese. These imported entries make up virtually all of the Vietnamese edition's contents. Like the English edition, the French Wiktionary has imported approximately 20,000 entries from the Unihan database of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters. The French Wiktionary grew rapidly in 2006 thanks in a large part to bots copying many entries from old, freely licensed dictionaries, such as the eighth edition of the "Dictionnaire de l'Académie française" (1935, around 35,000 words), and using bots to add words from other Wiktionary editions with French translations. The Russian edition grew by nearly 80,000 entries as "" added boilerplate entries (with headings, but without definitions) for words in English and German.


title: Wiktionary

text: As of July 2021, the English Wiktionary has over 791,870 gloss definitions and over 1,269,938 total definitions (including different forms) for English entries alone, with a total of over 9,928,056 definitions across all languages.


title: Wiktionary

text: Wiktionary has historically lacked a uniform logo across its numerous language editions. Some editions use logos that depict a dictionary entry about the term "Wiktionary", based on the previous English Wiktionary logo, which was designed by Brion Vibber, a MediaWiki developer. Because a purely textual logo must vary considerably from language to language, a four-phase contest to adopt a uniform logo was held at the Wikimedia Meta-Wiki from September to October 2006. Some communities adopted the winning entry by "Smurrayinchester", a 3×3 grid of wooden tiles, each bearing a character from a different writing system. However, the poll did not see as much participation from the Wiktionary community as some community members had hoped, and a number of the larger wikis ultimately kept their textual logos.


title: Wiktionary

text: In April 2009, the issue was resurrected with a new contest. This time, a depiction by "AAEngelman" of an open hardbound dictionary won a head-to-head vote against the 2006 logo, but the process to refine and adopt the new logo then stalled. In the following years, some wikis replaced their textual logos with one of the two newer logos. In 2012, 55 wikis that had been using the English Wiktionary logo received localized versions of the 2006 design by "Smurrayinchester". In July 2016, the English Wiktionary adopted a variant of this logo. , 135 wikis, representing 61% of Wiktionary's entries, use a logo based on the 2006 design by "Smurrayinchester", 33 wikis (36%) use a textual logo, and three wikis (3%) use the 2009 design by "AAEngelman".


title: Wiktionary

text: To ensure accuracy, the English Wiktionary has a policy requiring that terms be "attested". Terms in major languages such as English and Chinese must be verified by:


title: Wiktionary

text: For less-documented languages such as Creek and extinct languages such as Latin, one use in a permanently recorded medium or one mention in a reference work is sufficient verification.


title: Wiktionary

text: As of 2022, there are Wiktionary sites for languages of which are active and are closed. The active sites have articles, and the closed sites have articles. There are registered users of which are recently active.


title: Wiktionary

text: Critical reception of Wiktionary has been mixed. In 2006, Jill Lepore wrote in the article "Noah's Ark" for "The New Yorker,"


title: Wiktionary

text: There's no show of hands at "Wiktionary". There's not even an editorial staff. "Be your own lexicographer!", might be "Wiktionary's" motto. Who needs experts? Why pay good money for a dictionary written by lexicographers when we could cobble one together ourselves?


title: Wiktionary

text: "Wiktionary" isn't so much republican or democratic as Maoist. And it's only as good as the copyright-expired books from which it pilfers.


title: Wiktionary

text: Is there a place for Wiktionary? Undoubtedly. The industry and enthusiasm of its many creators are proof that there's a market. And it's wonderful to have another strong source to use when searching the odd terms that pop up in today's fast-changing world and the online environment. But as with so many Web sources (including this column), it's best used by sophisticated users in conjunction with more reputable sources.


title: Wiktionary

text: References in other publications are fleeting and part of larger discussions of Wikipedia, not progressing beyond a definition, although David Brooks in "The Nashua Telegraph" described it as "wild and woolly". One of the impediments to independent coverage of Wiktionary is the continuing confusion that it is merely an extension of Wikipedia.


title: Wiktionary

text: The measure of correctness of the inflections for a subset of the Polish words in the English Wiktionary showed that this grammatical data is very stable. Only 131 out of 4,748 Polish words have had their inflection data corrected.


title: Wiktionary

text: Wiktionary has semi-structured data. Wiktionary lexicographic data can be converted to machine-readable format in order to be used in natural language processing tasks.


title: Wiktionary

text: Examples of natural language processing tasks which have been solved with the help of Wiktionary data include: