Immigration News: April, 2005 - Volume 12

H-Work Visas, Students

In order for US employers to get immigrant visas or green cards for workers, they must prove that qualified US workers are not available, a process called certification in which the US Department of Labor supervises the recruitment of US workers and keeps tab on why US workers who applied were not hired. DOL certification procedures have long been criticized as costly and inefficient. After a period of one or two years, over 95 percent of employer requests for immigrants are approved.

To speed up the certification process, DOL introduced the Program Electronic Review Management system on March 28, 2005, under which employers file applications with DOL on line and DOL approves them within six to eight weeks. DOL says that employers must keep supporting documents and make them available for audits, but expects its new trust-the-employer approach to reduce certification costs while still protecting US workers. However, there are fears that the on-line system will make it easier to defraud the government and get DOL certification for friends and relatives that can lead to immigrant visas.

H-Work Visas. The annual limit on H-1B visas, 65,000, was reached on October 1, 2004, the first day of FY05. The Visa Reform Act of 2004 allows an additional 20,000 H-1B visas a year to be issued to foreign graduates of US universities who hold Masters or PhD degrees, but also increased the employer-paid fee by $500 to step up efforts by the US Department of Labor to detect fraud and underpayment of wages. DOL conducted 118 investigations of H-1B employers in FY04.

Critics say that the US produces too many advanced degree graduates in science and engineering. For example, there are about two MS engineering degrees for each BS engineering degree in the US, compared to a 10 to 1 ratio in China.

The annual cap of 66,000 H-2B visas was reached on January 3, 2005, just three months into FY05; in 2004, the cap was reached within six months. The H-2B program allows employers to request foreign workers to fill temporary or seasonal US jobs. Bills in Congress would raise the ceiling, primarily by exempting H-2B workers who were employed in the US previously from the limit.

For example, one pending bill would exempt foreigners who worked in the US with an H-2B visa during at least one of the three previous years from the cap.

Students. The Institute of International Education reported 572,509 foreign students in US universities in 2003-04, down slightly. IIE estimates the economic impact of foreign students at $13 billion a year.

Beginning in 1998, foreign students and researchers engaged in sensitive research areas that are not publicly listed had to receive security clearances in order to get visas. After September 11, 2001, the backlog in the Visas Mantis program got much longer, and visas had to be renewed each year; both requirements have been blamed for contributing to the decline of foreign student enrollment at US universities.

In February 2005, the State Department announced that visas would be valid for four years for students and two years for researchers. The GAO reported that the average wait for a visa was reduced to two weeks by February 2005 for business visitors, students and researchers, but noted that in China, India and Russia, there were still long waits to get a mandatory interview with US consular officials.

The US awarded 60,000 BS engineering degrees in 2001, while China awarded 220,000 and Japan 105,000, reflecting the fact that five percent of US BA/BS degrees are in engineering compared to 40 percent in China and 20 percent in Japan.

The OECD released a report on international student migration that estimated that two percent of the world's 100 million university students are enrolled outside their country of birth or citizenship. With annual fees totaling about $30 billion a year, internationalization and competition are the buzzwords in some university circles, and Chinese students are often the prize. There are expected to be 16 million Chinese enrolled in universities in 2005, including 100,000 enrolled in OECD countries.

There may be a move toward internationally standard degrees, such as the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) qualification. A US association now issues this certificate. Most applicants study economics, law and accountancy in private institutions in preparation for the $1,500 test; about 40 percent of test-takers pass. However, quality standards for the CFA certificate may be hard to maintain, especially in private institutions more interested in collecting tuition payments than in upholding academic integrity.

Tech. A study using employer-reported payroll tax data found that over half of those employed in California technology companies in early 2000 had left the technology industry or the state by the end of 2003. The Sphere Institute study tracked a million workers over nine years and found a significant migration into the Bay Area in the late 1990s, followed by a significant outflow after the tech bust in 2000. As with workers displaced from aerospace in southern California in the early 1990s, 40 percent those who left the tech industry but stayed in the Bay Area had lower earnings.

California's 2004 Private Attorneys General Act permits workers to sue employers to enforce the state's labor code, and some high-tech workers are suing their employers for unpaid overtime. Some allege that their employers ordered them to work long hours and did not offer overtime pay.