From: Norm Matloff To: Norm Matloff Subject: and on the green card front... To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter Often lost in the conversation on H-1B is the equally important issue of employer-sponsored green cards. Last year's Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill, and various related pieces of legislation, not only would increase the yearly H-1B cap, but would also expand the green card program. The industry's claimed reason for liberalizing green card policy is summed up by the Lofgren quote in the enclosed article: # Because of this [per-country] cap, a Chinese or Indian post-graduate at # the top of his/her class at MIT may have to wait half a decade or more # for a green card, much longer than a student from a less-populated # country. Sounds unfair, and even counter to U.S. interests, right? Wrong. Though it is true that the waiting time varies with the country, the fact is that Lofgren's hypothetical genius would NOT have to "wait half a decade or more for a green card." He in fact would have ZERO wait time for the visa. See my previous posting at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/WadhwaIII.txt for details, but the summary is this: The employer-sponsored green card system has three tiers. The one for the top talents is EB-1, described as "foreign nationals of extraordinary ability" (and for "outstanding professors") is "Current" for all nationalities, including the Chinese and Indians. "Current" is the State Dept. term for "no backlog, no waiting." See http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_4231.html The category that does have a long wait is EB-3, which is for ordinary workers, no special talent. So, LOFGREN'S STATEMENT IS EGREGIOUSLY MISLEADING. And as a former immigration lawyer and immigration law professor, Lofgren presumably knows full well that her statement is misleading. You might think that employers would not want to expedite the green card process, as they lose their power over a worker once she gets her green card. That is a consideration--see my University of Michigan law journal article for examples of immigration lawyers who admit that employers do like the de facto indentured servant status of their H-1Bs--but what is just as important is having available a pool of YOUNG workers, because younger workers are cheaper. Most of the H-1Bs are young, and of course they are still young once they get their green cards. [In spite of the industry's claim that they wait so long. :-) ] Regular readers of this e-newsletter know that the core of H-1B is ENABLING EMPLOYERS TO AVOID HIRING OLDER AMERICAN WORKERS, of age 40 or even 35. It's no coincidence, for example, that the "automatic green cards" that were proposed in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill were for NEW GRADUATES, because they are YOUNG. The point, then, is that the industry is afraid that the foreign workers--again, I'm talking about the ordinary ones, the EB-3s, not the top talents--will be put off by the long wait in EB-3, and won't come to the U.S. in the first place. The industry then loses a major part of its young labor pool. Many readers of this e-newsletter are researchers, policymakers, journalists and the like. I hope they are beginning to understand the following simple principle: Sadly, almost anything the industry PR people say is completely (and knowingly) wrong. When I read the piece enclosed below, I found a link to an interesting analysis by the same author of my recent CIS article, with a surprising take on it, or I should say, on something I said long ago. I'll try to post that one tomorrow if I have time. Norm http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=10&articleId=9085658&intsrc=hm_topic Computerworld Reports With H-1B in limbo, Congressional backers push Green Card fix Head of key House committee has introduced three bills in two months By Patrick Thibodeau May 14, 2008 (Computerworld) Efforts to increase the H-1B cap have been stuck in a legislative swamp, but U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) has introduced three bills in the last few weeks to help foreign nationals already working in the U.S. to obtain permanent residency. She announced her latest legislative effort late Wednesday. Fixing the permanent residency, or green card employment-based, visa program has been a top legislative goal of high-tech industry proponents, on par with their efforts to raise the H-1B cap. And Lofgren, who heads the U.S. House Subcommittee on Immigration, is in the position to move legislation to the head of the class. But it remains to be seen whether she can jump over the legislative stalemate created by lawmakers who want comprehensive immigration reform or nothing at all. Lofgren's latest bill, HR 6039, which is not yet available online, will exempt graduates of U.S. universities with advanced degrees in science and tech -- the so called STEM degrees (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) -- from the annual 140,000 limit on these permanent residency visas. The bill was officially introduced yesterday. In a statement, Lofgren said that more than 50% of graudates with advanced degrees in science and engineering are foreign-born. "If we want our economy to continue competing in the global market, we have to retain these foreign students so they compete with us instead of against us in other countries. These men and women are the innovators of tomorrow, and we aren't the only ones looking to retain their talents. Increasingly, employers from Europe, Australia, Canada, and even China and India, are beating U.S. employers for valuable talent," said Lofgren. That bill is closely tied to legislation introduced earlier this month by Lofgren, HR 5921. That bill seeks to eliminate the per-country caps on employment-based visas. The U.S. caps at 7% per country the number of employment-based visas issued to would-be visiting workers. "Because of this cap, a Chinese or Indian post-graduate at he top of his/her class at MIT may have to wait half a decade or more for a green card, much longer than a student from a less-populated country," said Lofgren, in a statement released when the legislation was announced. Although much of the focus has been on the H-1B cap and its 85,000-visa quota, which includes the 20,000 set aside for holders of advanced degrees, high-tech industry proponents say the difficulty in getting permanent residency for their employees is as much a problem as getting H-1B visas. Microsoft has about 4,000 employees for whom it is trying to gain permanent residency, said Jack Krumholtz, managing director of federal government affairs at Microsoft. They face long waits because of the green card backlog, suffering personal and professional frustrations along the way, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates testified. "We only hire people that we think can contribute to our innovation and corporate bottom line over the long haul, so we move immediately to apply for green cards for you and your family members," said Krumholtz, who said Microsoft is supporting Lofgren's legislative effort. The typical path for a tech worker is, first, work after graduation on a student visa -- a period that was recently extended by the Bush administration from a year to 29 months -- and then an H-1B visa until employment-based permanent residency can be achieved. Other legislative steps taken by Lofgren include a bill that would take unused employment-based green cards and essentially roll them over for resuse in a subsequent year. That bill is HR 5882. There are Republican co-sponsors for each of these bills. Lofgren's across-the-aisle backers of these bills include U.S. Reps. Chris Cannon (R-Utah), Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, said he believes the U.S. can absorb more highly skilled, permanent immigrants with green cards "without significantly harming the American workforce. But we have to do it the right way." Among the issues, says Hira, is the thorny question of "who are we going to grant employment-based permanent residence to?" Educational level attained (bachelor's, masters or Ph.D) and the academic area studied by potential residents are apt to be factors in that. Hira said that one "significant problem" with the Lofgren bills "has to do with using exemptions as a way around tackling the decision of how many [to grant]," and he added the plan to "recapture" was a gimmick to get around the quota issue. Among the questions Congress should look at, says Hira, is the impact of the changes; he indicated, for instance, that the legislation may change incentives, prompting foreign nationals to seek degrees from any U.S. school they can because it will be seen as a path to permanent residency.