Legal Issues Impacting Your Business
Download Associated Document |
| www.google.com |
As our clients who filed H-1Bs this year already know, USCIS received three times the available
number of H-1B work visa petitions in one day.
If last year's H cap problem was disgraceful, this year's is dire. Last year, the 65,000 H visas were claimed in an 8-week period of filing, leaving none available for new hires for a 16-month period. This year, all 65,000 visas were claimed in a few hours, leaving none available for an 18-month period, and resulting in the rejection of some 65,000 to 85,000 filed petitions.
Now is the moment to tell Congress that 65,000 H-1B professional worker visas is not enough. It is not enough when U.S. colleges and universities graduate hundreds of thousands of foreign students each
year. It is not enough when from 1999 to 2003 there were either 115,000 or 195,000 H-1B visa available each fiscal year.
Here is what you and others can do:
* Ask Congress to raise the H-1B cap. The American Immigration Lawyers Association has a model letter at
http://capwiz.com/aila2/issues/alert/?alertid=9589591. Sign and send it yourself.
*Ask your colleagues, employees and friends to do the same.
* Put the model letter link on your company intranet, myspace.com or facebook.com pages.
* Write a personalized letter if you can!
* Forward this or a similar email to your listserves. The more publicity and letters we quickly generate, the more likely we are to see some positive action.
* Get newspaper publicity about the H-1B cap crisis. Get your papers to write articles about the adverse effect the H-1B cap is having on local companies.
* Email me details about how the H-1B cap is hurting your company so that I can let Congress know. If you prefer not to have your company's name made public, that is fine.
If the U.S. wants to remain one of the world's leading economies, there must be more avenues for legal employment here.
ICE Continues Aggressive Enforcement
Immigration raids in Massachusetts and other states have continued to keep ICE ("Immigration Customs and Enforcement") in the news. Indictments of employers who allegedly know they have unauthorized workers is also on the rise.
Although joining the Basic Pilot program (https://www.vis-dhs.com/EmployerRegistration/StartPage.aspx?JS=YES) has some benefits for employers, reports of dissatisfaction with this program continue.
Both Employment-Based and Family-Based Visa Numbers Move Slowly
Every month, the Department of State publishes the Visa Bulletin to show what "priority dates" are being processed for permanent residence in the coming month. As the April Bulletin shows, things are moving slowly ahead if moving at all (http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html). The "Third Preference" category, which covers people doing jobs that require at least two years experience or training up to anything short of a master's degree, has not moved at all.
Need for Comprehensive Reform - CALL or EMAIL TODAY!
Given the last two items, it is now more clear than ever that a change in our immigration laws is needed. A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives (the STRIVE Act); President Bush has been pushing a plan to GOP leaders; and Senator Kennedy is expected to come out with a bill in the very near future.
So far neither plan is an acceptable solution, and the President's plan is particularly troubling - including a wildly deficient guest worker program and pulling the rug out from under those waiting in the family-based lines for years.
Attached is a summary of the President's plan. Please call and have your colleagues and friends do so also.
