H1B Visas in the News
There is some controversy surrounding the use of H-1B visas by companies that are being bailed out by the US government in the current financial crisis.
On February 06, 2009, the U.S. Senate agreed to set restrictions on the hiring of H-1B workers by financial services firms that receive federal bailout funds, but it didn't bar the hiring of foreign workers as some in Washington would have liked. U.S. Senators. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had proposed legislation that would prohibit any firm that received money under the Troubled Assets Relief Program from hiring H-1B foreign workers. The amendment that passed didn't include a blanket restriction on H-1B use and instead set a series of strict standards on H-1B hiring.
The Senate's amendment would require companies receiving funds, most of them financial services firms, to comply with hiring rules set for "H-1B dependent" firms -- those with more than 15% of their workers on H-1B visas. The H-1B dependent designation subjects employers to a number of provisions, These obligations require that such employers not displace U.S. workers from jobs and that such employers recruit U.S. workers before hiring H-1B nonimmigrants.
An H-1B visa is a nonimmigrant visa, meaning that it is for a temporary length of time that a worker can come to the United States for employment. It is a work visa for what are called "specialty occupations.” Better known to a lay person as a professional occupation, they are occupations that requires a bachelor’s degree or higher. An H-1B worker might be a computer professional, they can be a teacher, an engineer, a market researcher, or any other position that can be shown to require a Bachelor’s degree.
All of those professions are competing for H1B visas. Microsoft typically hires H-1Bs and Bill Gates has spoken to Congress several times to ask for them to expand the annual number of H-1Bs available. Often a company will hire an H-1B employee because there is a shortage of the kind of professional in the United States and the business can’t find an American that qualifies for the position.
In Fiscal Year 2004, the amount of H-1B visas that United States Congress allowed was reduced from 195,000 to the current annual allotment of 65,000. Last April, USCIS received more than double that amount of applications for H-1B workers to begin work in Fiscal Year 2009, and USCIS was forced to engage in a lottery in order to determine who would obtain the H-1B visas. This scenario has occurred consistently in recent years, but now we are faced with the recent financial meltdown. No one knows how many businesses will be petitioning for H-1B workers in the coming year.
THE BEST TEN BENEFITS OF BECOMING A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES
The Right to Vote-One of the Basic Benefits of a US Citizen
Apply now to be a part of democracy. One of the basic rights you have as a U.S. citizen is the right to vote. Guarantee yourself this right so you have a say in how you want your country governed. Vote for President, vote on local tax issues, and vote for your local representatives.
Help with Reuniting Families/The right to sponsor relatives
You can help certain relatives obtain their immigrant visa without extended delays. Some relatives get to enjoy the citizenship benefits of U.S. citizens if they're considered "immediate relatives": spouses, parents and minor, unmarried children. For these relatives, there is no limit to the number of visas issued each year. There are also other privileges that immediate relatives have that may make it easier for them to get permanent residence in the U.S. Overstays can still adjust to permanent residents.
Protecting Your Children's Right to Remain in the U.S.
Extend the benefits of becoming a U.S. citizen to your children - Permanent resident children under the age of eighteen, who are in the lawful legal and physical custody of their naturalizing parent(s), automatically become U.S. citizens when their parent(s) become naturalized.
Never Deported
Protect yourself - new laws could be passed that adversely affect your rights as a permanent resident. There are many benefits to being a citizen in the event you are accused of a crime, even a non-serious one. As a permanent resident, you remain within the authority of the U.S. of Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly known as the INS) and the Immigration Courts and can be removed (or deported). As a citizen, you have the right to an attorney and a fair trial without being deported. A U.S. citizen's right to remain in the United States cannot be taken away.
Travel Issues
Are you concerned with leaving and re-entering the country? As a U.S. citizen, you are not restricted on the time you can spend outside of the U.S. Permanent residents can lose their status if they leave the country for 180 days or longer. For extended absences, permanent residents must obtain a re-entry permit. As a U.S. citizen, you can skip this process and live abroad without jeopardizing your citizenship status. Travel is also more convenient because many countries do not require visas of U.S. citizens.
Government Benefits
Some refugees and other non-citizens can only get Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for up to seven years. If you are a current or former SSI recipient subject to SSI eligibility under the seven-year time limit, we encourage you to apply for Citizenship.
Run for Public Office/ Obtain State or Federal Government Jobs
As a U.S. citizen you are granted the right to run for public office, and you become eligible for certain government agency jobs.
Financial Consideration
Green cards must be renewed every ten years for a fee (currently $370.00), while citizenship once obtained does not expire or need to be renewed. Many financial aid grants, including college scholarships are available to only U.S. citizens.
Estate/ Taxes
All property left to a spouse is exempt from estate tax, as long as the spouse is a U.S. citizen. In general, the U.S. gift tax and estate tax laws permit unlimited tax-free transfers of property between spouses if the transferee spouse (i.e., the spouse receiving property) is a U.S. citizen. This "marital deduction" often is said to reflect the view that a husband and wife represent a single economic unit. But the marital deduction is not allowed if the transferee spouse is not a U.S. citizen, even if the non-citizen spouse is a permanent resident of the United States.
Weight of US Government behind you to protect you
U.S. Consulates and Embassies can provide you with assistance when overseas if necessary.
April 25, 2008
THE BEST REASON WHY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SHOULD BE BE ALLOWED TO LEGALIZE
ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES
We all have busy lives where we have to make choices about how we spend our time and resources. We would like to have a perfectly clean home and well manicured garden, be able to cook gourmet meals, be up on all the hot movies and books, see our children or grandchildren tons of times. But we can't do it all. The same goes for the government. They have limited resources and if you don't want to pay more taxes than you already do, that will always be true.
What this means is that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and ICE must allocate their resources in the best way possible by determining priorities. They go after the criminals first and deport them. Would you rather have officers busting criminals or deporting your cleaning ladies and gardeners? It would take a ton of money to root out and arrest 12 million illegally present noncitizens who are not criminals for the purpose of giving them a hearing and then deporting them all. INS prioritizes by putting their officers outside jails and prisons and moving criminals directly from having served their sentences under State criminal laws, into federal detention centers and then deporting them (usually after they have a hearing). More than that, the agencies can?t afford. The customer service part of INS, which is absolutely necessary for processing legal immigration, uses up some of their budget.
All of you have personal knowledge of just how many vehicles are driving well over the speed limit on freeways and streets in your area and do not get stopped and ticketed by the police. That percentage that don't get stopped are about the same percentage of illegal aliens who will ever get deported at the rate we are going. Can you imagine the size of the detention centers needed that would hold millions while they are waiting to be removed? Unless we as a society are willing to throw just a ton of money at the fact that over 12 million illegal aliens are living here in the US, they will continue to live here. This is why some politicians refer to the current situation as "de facto amnesty." Which means that despite them being here in violation of immigration laws, they will continue to be here permanently, without a penalty. They are given jobs by employers who may or may not know their status, real estate brokers are happy to sell them homes even when they do know, the Supreme Court mandates that they be allowed to attend public schools, and receive emergency medical aid. So unless you are willing to round them all up, opponents should quit bitching about "amnesty" because that is what they already have.
We need our government resources to do more important things:
- Replace crumbling infrastructure such as bridges, dams, freeways, that haven't been updated since they were built
- Public transportation
- Fix social security so it doesn't run out of money
- Keep Medicare solvent
- Security measures at the ports
- Healthcare
Enforcement efforts are necessary, but removing 12 million is not realistic because as such, it is low on the list of necessary government programs vying for limited resources. We already borrow how many $billions from China?
Accordingly, the only logical conclusion is that these folks should be allowed to live inside our legal system by changing the law. Contrary to assertions from Lou Dobbs and other racist commentators 40 percent of those here illegally are not from Mexico, but are from all the other countries, including Canada, and are "visa overstays" that entered the US legally but failed to depart.