Dear Readers:
Tuesday is the first day of H-1B cap season and most people expect the annual 65,000 allotment of visas to be filled up immediately. The open question is how many people who get their applications in at the opening still won’t get visas because there will be too many received at the outset. Congress set the annual quota nearly a quarter century ago based on the needs of a 1980s economy. It briefly raised the cap about 15 years ago and after three years it returned to the 65,000 quota where we find ourselves today.
Most members of both parties agree that the quota is antiquated and needs to be dramatically increased in order to allow the American economy to grow. Too many Silicon Valley employers are offshoring operations because they cannot hire the talent they need. Too many rural and inner city communities face doctor shortages because they cannot recruit American doctors. Too many American-educated international scientists and engineers depart the US when they get their degrees because the H-1B visa quota serves as a barrier to their working in the United States.
Protectionist, anti-immigrant organizations continue to try and convince policymakers that our antiquated quotas help save jobs for Americans. But study after study from organizations that have no political agenda say the opposite – that the H-1B is a job creation program for American workers. H-1B employees have gone on to found many of the largest companies in the country and employers that have reliable access to needed highly skilled labor hire Americans alongside the H-1B employees. But if they don’t have a reliable source of labor, they go where they’ll find it taking jobs from both Americans and potential H-1B workers.
Both the Senate and House have passed bills in the last few months that would raise the H-1B cap. But the House is stalling as they avoid dealing with any immigration bills. Nine months have passed since the Issa skilled worker bill passed in the House Judiciary Committee and it has yet to be brought to the House floor.
Many hope the House will move immigration reform this spring as soon as the last filing deadline for the Republican primaries has passed. But that’s wishful thinking at this point and some in the House are saying immigration reform should wait until 2015 or even until after the 2016 election. In the meantime, the US economy suffers and we’re still not able to get back to where we were during the booming 90s.
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USCIS recently announced the extension of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. Many are lobbying to get TPS status for Filipinos in the wake of the terrible typhoon that hit that country last fall. And many see TPS as a possible tool that the President can use to deal with Congress’ inaction on immigration reform. So we’ve decided to post our monthly ABCs of Immigration article on TPS.
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Regards,
Greg Siskind
Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk.