Immigration News and Updates

lost_stranger · Oct 25, 2007

Another part of the Schumer amendment is as follows:

"4) PETITIONS.--The Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide a process for reviewing and acting upon petitions with respect to immigrants described in schedule A not later than 30 days after the date on which a completed petition has been filed."

The final interpretation is anyone's guess.

BagwisRN · Oct 26, 2007

Your entirely right! the final Draft is really the one we need to get hold of and try to interpret.Im particularly confused on the "financial Attestation" part. Making sure that I dont have any financial obligations left to my country of origin before I leave?? How do we do that? Do I just sign a legal paper saying I dont? Or do we go through a whole lot of trouble of checking everyones taxes?? Thats gonna take even more waiting time if ever!!Whats ur take on this provision??

RNGrad2006 · Oct 26, 2007

Your entirely right! the final Draft is really the one we need to get hold of and try to interpret.Im particularly confused on the "financial Attestation" part. Making sure that I dont have any financial obligations left to my country of origin before I leave?? How do we do that? Do I just sign a legal paper saying I dont? Or do we go through a whole lot of trouble of checking everyones taxes?? Thats gonna take even more waiting time if ever!!Whats ur take on this provision??

Or how about those of us that are technically foreign born but US educated? Certainly no financial obligations to our country of citizenship and I didnt take out any student loans since we used savings while I went to school.

aky_888 · Oct 30, 2007

senate votes to increase fees for foreign skilled workers

the siia blasts u.s. policymakers for increasing visa fees while their eu counterparts try to make it easier for skilled workers to enter.

[color=#646469]by [color=#0f4692]k.c. jones[color=#0f4692]informationweek

[color=#646469]october 29, 2007 11:14 am

as the european union cracked open its doors for skilled workers, the u.s. senate voted to approve a $3,500 fee increase for u.s. companies bringing them to america.

the senate approved the measure last week, the same day the european union announced a new "blue card" plan to issue temporary work visas to well educated foreign professionals.

software & information industry association president ken wasch said the u.s. action was "gravely disconcerting."

"with the drastic shortage of h-1b visas for temporary high-skilled workers and the backlog of employment-based green cards, the u.s. is already competing in the global talent competition with its hands tied behind its back," he said in a prepared statement. "this additional fee to hire specialized talent -- which often comes out of american universities -- sends yet another signal that our nation is not serious about being a world leader in technology and innovation."

the eu plan, which must gain support from all member states, would make it easier for people with visas in one to three months. the process often takes several years in the united states.

wasch said congress should match the european union's moves and ensure that american companies can compete for the best and brightest workers around the world.

"specifically, congress should act expeditiously to increase the number of temporary h-1b visas for highly-skilled workers and provide long-overdue relief for the backlog of eb green cards," he said.

several tech industry giants and [color=#0f4692]associations also want congress to raise caps on h-1b visas. they claim that they need foreign talent to cope with a shortage of americans with advanced level degrees in science and technologies.

the fee increase has not been approved by the house and may not make it into law. the money is slated to fund annual scholarships for students in math, science, engineering, and computer science.

source:

http://www.informationweek.com/showarticle.jhtml;jsessionid=oebzvwfo3qfq2qsndloskh0cjunn2jvn?articleid=202602865&querytext=h-1b

lost_stranger · Oct 31, 2007

i found the following on the oh law firm web-site, www.immigration-law.com:

10/30/2007: fate of h.r. 3043, labor-hhs fy 2008 appropriation bill

as we reported earlier, the senate passed this bill with the two immigration rider bills: one is 61,000 employment-based visa numbers recapture for eb-3 to relieve the schedule a allied healthcare worker shortage problem. the other is h-1b supplemental fee bill to increase the h-1b filing fees to $5,820 for the employers hiring over 25 employees. the fate of this legislation depends on challenges at the two different levels. one is the test in the conference committee. however, even if these riders survive in the conference committee, there is more serious challenge ahead involving the president's veto of the entire bill.
report indicates that the senate-house conference committee will meet on thursday, november 1, 2007, and start sending the conference-agreed bills to the president. it is thus likely that h.r. 3043 may be resolved in the conference committee on or after november 1, 2007 with or without one or both of the immigration riders. however, even before reaching this point, there is an on-going struggle between the white house and the democrat congress. the white house has been threatening to veto this bill. to deal with such potential veto, the democrats are considering putting two or three conference bills together including iraq war appropriation which the president anxicously needs. it appears that the president is not backing down from its desire to veto the bill, no matter whether it is presented as a separate bill or as part of a packet that can include iraq war funding legislation. this showdown is likely to continue until november 16, 2007 when the congress will go into a holiday break. next two weeks can mark a critical juncture for the two immigration bills attached to h.r. 3043. please stay tuned.

sagar · Nov 2, 2007

i have learned that the immigration provisions that would have created 61,000 additional green cards for nurses as well as added a $3500 fee to h-1b visas have not survived the conference committee and will not be a part of the bill sent to the president (which he is set to veto). there is much speculation as to why this happened. many people were deeply troubled by the h-1b and its impact on non-profit and smaller employers. in order to allow senator grassley to save face, the push was made to strip all immigration provisions out, even though the h-1b fee opponents likely supported the nurses. we also understand the california nurses association, the most vocal anti-immigration nursing group in the country, worked behind the scenes to try and kill the nursing provision. nice that they care so much about their patients and would rather push death rates up rather than immediately dealing with the nursing crisis.

reference: http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2007/11/nurse-h-1b-fees.html

rkm · Nov 3, 2007

Not surprising at all. There's nothing anyone can do about this. Their country, their rules. We must respect that. And await whatever falls our way. So for the thousands out there waiting in the PI, looks like it will be a terribly long wait, how long nobody knows.

:lol2:

lost_stranger · Apr 12, 2008

Sen. Cornyn introduced a new bill on Thursday ie. "The Global Competitiveness Act of 2008" which includes among many many provisions the recapture of 61,000 visas for nurses and physical therapists and their spouses and children and an EB visa recapture fee of $1,500

Its just been introduced and has been sent to the House Judiciary Committee I think, the bill has a long way to go that is if it survives the committee in the first place.

Here is the link:

http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ForPress.NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=39c4cd1a-802a-23ad-4d63-7b0adab48b23

lawrence01 · Apr 12, 2008

Sen. Cornyn introduced a new bill on Thursday ie. "The Global Competitiveness Act of 2008" which includes among many many provisions the recapture of 61,000 visas for nurses and physical therapists and their spouses and children and an EB visa recapture fee of $1,500
Its just been introduced and has been sent to the House Judiciary Committee I think, the bill has a long way to go that is if it survives the committee in the first place.
Here is the link:
http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ForPress.NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=39c4cd1a-802a-23ad-4d63-7b0adab48b23

Thanks for the update.

suzanne4, RN · Apr 12, 2008

Even with a recapture of this number of visas, same thing that was done last May/June if you remember; there was not much movement at all. When you include spouses and children, you are looking at about 17,500 nurses world-wide, and that does not even make a dent. They are still going to be going by PD dates as well as completed files.

And with a new government coming in next January, do not expect to see much happen along these lines for sometime. There are many of these bills that are introduced all of the time and nothing ever happens with them. But then some others will start rumors about this new bill that just passed and how soon before they will be in the US, when it was never even placed thru for a vote in the first place.

fjellgren · Apr 12, 2008

Suzanne, do you recommend having H-1B visas and immigrant visas worked out by Universities which are exempt from the Capping stuff by the USCIS?

Thanks.

suzanne4, RN · Apr 13, 2008

It is very hard to get those, not as easy as everyone assumes. The job must have the BSN as the initial training for the position, if they accept the ADN of American nurses, then it will not work for you. It also states that the nurse should be a specialist or with specialist training.

Next issue is the state that the university is located in, if they are under a union for the nurses, most do not accept any nurses with temporary work permits and they have to sign off on any job offer in most places.

There is a reason that we are not seeing the H1-B visa routinely for the past four years and the reason why nurses are fast-tracked when the green cards are available, there is also much more paperwork involved with this visa and most facilities want nothing to do with them.

There were many bad issues with them in the past and I do not believe that they have changed.

I personally do not like them and do not recommend this visa for anyone, your choice as to what you want to do.