U.S. immigration relaxes rule for "green card" see

U.S. immigration relaxes rule for "green card" seekers
Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:21AM EDT
By JoAnne Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. immigration service reversed itself again on "green cards" on Tuesday, saying it would begin immediately accepting applications from thousands of foreign professional workers.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services abruptly reversed an announcement issued in June offering expedited processing of green card petitions for skilled foreign professionals working under H1-B visas.

Thousands of holders of H1-B visas -- reserved for skilled workers in computing, engineering and other special professions -- scrambled and spent money on lawyers and medical exams to prepare green card applications for a July 1 deadline.

However, on July 2, the U.S. State Department announced that no applications would be accepted until the fall because of a large visa backlog.

The announcement drew protests from disgruntled green card applicants and Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, who called on the State Department to reverse itself.

"The public reaction to the July 2 announcement made it clear that the federal government's management of this process needs further review," USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez said in a statement announcing the latest flip-flop.

Gonzalez vowed to work on implementing a more efficient system in line with public expectations.

"It's unfortunate that the administration had to tie itself in a pretzel before coming to this conclusion," Schumer said in a statement, calling it a welcome reversal.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/ ... 5820070718

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Earlier this month, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services abruptly reversed an announcement issued in June offering expedited processing of green card petitions for skilled foreign professionals working under H1-B visas.

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There's still a green card process?? Learn something new everyday

We don't have enough illegals already? Lets give some more access to the homeland so that they can easily violate their visas too. After all we have no way of monitering them lets bring more in and that will convince everyone to give amnesty! (read with GREAT sarcism)

I could have sworn I responded to a duplicate to this post this morning, but unfortunately I can't find it.

I believe this is a duplicate post. :wink:

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Thousands of holders of H1-B visas -- reserved for skilled workers in computing, engineering and other special professions -- scrambled and spent money on lawyers and medical exams to prepare green card applications for a July 1 deadline.

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H1 –B visas in my opinion offers at best a small return for the government. If there is a shortage of skilled workers a better long term approach would be to offer American students scholarships to colleges and universities. If you were to do this the government would be collecting taxes for a very long time. This would more than pay for all scholarships. We should remember that 30 – 40% of illegal aliens come from visa overstays.