Thread: Rep. McCaul-TX on H-1B visas

May 8, 2007

Dear Colleague:

We want to bring to your attention the ongoing crisis in U.S. highly-skilled immigration policy that is threatening our nation’s ability to innovate and compete in the global economy.

Our current policies for highly skilled immigrants is forcing huge numbers of the smartest, most talented people in the world – many of whom have been educated in, invested in and trained in American universities – to look for work outside of the U.S, often with our nation’s strongest competitors. We should be encouraging these outstanding students to stay in America to help innovate and advance our economy, not to work for our international rivals.

On April 2 of this year, the cap for H-1B visas for FY 2008 was reached on the first day that applications were accepted. Nearly 150,000 applications were received for only 65,000 visas, and as a result, a lottery system was used to determine who actually receives a visa. Visas for advanced degree graduates of U.S. colleges and universities, which is capped at 20,000 annually, also was reached recently in record time. Because both caps were hit within a month, foreign-born students graduating from U.S. universities in the coming weeks will be unable to obtain a visa to work in the United States until October 1, 2008, the start of the next fiscal year, and that’s only if their petitions are accepted next year.

The problem with Employment-Based (EB) green cards, which allow skilled professionals to stay in the U.S. on a permanent basis, is just as troubling. Because of backlogs and processing delays, it now commonly takes 5-10 years for someone to receive a green card. These delays make it extremely difficult for American companies to recruit and retain exceptional employees.

Attached you will find a recent editorial by The Washington Post that makes a fundamental conclusion: our U.S. highly-skilled immigration system is broken. We encourage you to review this important piece. It is essential that our nation adopt common sense solutions that will allow the best and brightest in the world to work in the United States. Our nation’s innovation leadership depends on it.


Sincerely,



Michael McCaul
Member of Congress

Artur Davis
Member of Congress

Skilled Masses
Keeping the world's talent in America
The Washington Post
Friday, May 4, 2007; A22
THE IMMIGRATION reform debate has largely revolved around immigrants who do jobs Americans are not willing to do. But what about immigrants who do the jobs Americans are not able to do?
The H-1B visa, for "specialty occupation workers" in high-tech fields such as medicine, computers and engineering, is capped at 65,000 a year. Many of those industries face a shortage of skilled American labor. So, on April 2, the first day visa applications were accepted for fiscal 2008, few were surprised that the quota was hit within hours. By law, the 123,480 applications received in the first two days will be processed by lottery.
The tens of thousands of H-1B rejects will constitute some of the world's best and brightest, and America is foolish to block them from the U.S. economy. After all, according to the National Science Foundation, a third of all science and engineering doctorates awarded in the United States go to foreign students (whose numbers are not limited). And according to the National Venture Capital Association, over the past 15 years one out of every four public companies backed by venture capital was started by an immigrant (including Google and eBay). The current H-1B cap is outdated, having been set by Congress before the Internet boom and the related blossoming of high-tech companies. Recognizing the need for foreign talent to keep U.S. high-tech industries on the cutting edge, Congress temporarily raised the ceiling to 195,000 for fiscal 2001 through 2003, only to let it relapse out of neglect. Every year since, the cap has been reached well before the start of the fiscal year, though this year was the first time it was met the first day.
For those applicants not selected in this year's lottery -- or who were shut out of the process entirely because they need a diploma to apply but had not graduated by April 3 -- the next opportunity to file an H-1B petition is not until April 1, 2008. If those applications are accepted, the applicants will be able to start work on Oct. 1, 2008. But by that time, immigration experts and leaders in high-tech industries fear, many of the workers will have returned home or moved to countries such as Australia that have recently changed their immigration regulations to attract highly skilled workers. It may not be long before U.S. companies follow the talent overseas.
Congress is considering several bills that address the need to reform the H-1B program, including two that would raise the cap to 115,000. If they want America's high-tech industries to stay innovative, members of Congress should address the labor problem vis-a-vis visas -- and preferably before the class of 2007 heads home.

exactly what few people tried to explain in this thread
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=60083

And now there are hundreds of these articles, spreading worldwide: http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/05/ ... ers_1.html

its good - few companies abusing the system are killing a program that has been beneficial for this country. FIX THE SYSTEM, deal with companies not following the laws!!!