President Trump to Order Suspension of Work Visas

Posted June 22, 2020

BREAKING: June 22, 2020

The Trump Administration has announced that the president will issue an Executive Order suspending the issuance of new work visas abroad, including H-1B visas, H-2B visas, L Intracompany Transferees and J-1 Exchange Visitors, through at least October 1, 2020, a move that will severely curtail the entry of foreign labor into the United States.  The suspension is intended to bolster the job market for U.S. workers during the coronavirus pandemic, however critics question the economics behind the policy and suggest the suspension could lead to a reduction in U.S. competitiveness in the global economy and could hurt U.S. techology companies.

Stay tuned for further developments.

 

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Fiscal Year 2016 H-1B Cap Update

Posted April 22, 2015

USCIS received a whopping 233,000 cap-subject H-1B petitions for the filing period beginning April 1, 2015 before quickly shutting off petition submissions.  As in recent years, USCIS conducted a random draw (a self-styled ‘lottery’ of which, regrettably, we have no video) to select petitions for adjudication while rejecting all others.  Receipt notices have begun issuing for selected petitions, a process that is expected to take three to four weeks due to the volume of submissions.  The 15-day adjudication period for Premium Processing petitions will begin April 27, 2015.  USCIS will continue to accept cap-exempt H-1B petitions throughout the year, including portability petitions for foreign H-1B workers who change employers.

For an informed analysis of this year’s unprecedented H-1B lottery, read this article from the Society of Human Resource Management.

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“On net, immigrants expand the U.S. economy’s productive capacity . . .

Posted February 13, 2014

. . . stimulate investment, and promote specialization that in the long run boosts productivity. . .  there is no evidence that these effects take place at the expense of jobs for workers born in the United States.”

So says economist Giovanni Pero of the University of California, Davis, in a report on the impact of the H-1B visa published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

This Forbes article highlights differing approaches to the H-1B (or lack thereof) problem by the House of Representatives and Senate.  The House’s ‘Skills Visa Act’ removes barriers to IT outplacement firms currently facing H-1B dependency restrictions.  The Senate Bill, famously passed last June but which languishes somewhere deep in the Milky Way, keeps the screws to H-1B dependent employers.  Senate Democrats surely insist.

These seemingly subtle differences differences reflect fragmented policy approaches to the economics of immigration.  Protectionism complicates progress in a global economy.  To some, America’s composition is at issue.  To others, competitiveness.  The sensible approach incorporates both policy prescriptions without pandering to special interests (unions, primarily) or xenophobia.  The Great Immigration Stalemate continues.

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Microsoft Takes Lead on H-1B Front

Posted October 4, 2012

Microsoft corporation last week unveiled a public proposal of its own devise that would create an additional 20,000 H-1B visas for foreign employment in occupations in the STEM categories (science, tech, engineering, math).  Current law allows for 65,000.  Brad Smith, general counsel of Microsoft, suggests that willing U.S. employers might be willing to pay up to $10,000 in fees for each placed worker, producing additional government revenue of $500 million a year.  The U.S faces a projected shortfall of approximately half of 120,000 computer-related positions requiring a bachelor’s degree expected to materialize over the next ten years.  The company’s proposal would also allow issuance of up to 20,000 additional green cards a year to STEM workers caught in the 6-year H-1B cap no-mans land, with numbers drawn from existing unused pools.

This is a sensible approach that overlays market demands in a new economy on established immigration preferences under outdated law – not to mention, cuts into the federal deficit. Can business needs be tethered to sensible comprehensive reform, or should Microsoft be seen as a special interest?  It’s up to Congress and the president.

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