Overqualified Immigrant

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

By Ilya Shapiro

... as I follow the overheated rhetoric about guest-workers and homeland security, legal versus illegal immigrants, and the needs of American business and American labor, I can't help but smile and shake my head. And then go home and cry.

Because no matter how hard I work, how good I am at my job (my day job or this writing thing), how brilliant (and sincere) a personal statement I write espousing my love for this country, its people and values, I will never be able to achieve that which is being offered to certain classes of "undocumented" aliens under any of the proposals being batted around Congressional water coolers. That is, every plan under consideration -- save the "enforcement only" ones that don't even attempt to deal with the reality of 12 million illegal aliens -- contains a measure that allows unskilled foreign workers to be put "on the path to citizenship." This path is simply unavailable to skilled workers like me.

I'm not trying to be cute here: from President Bush to Kennedy-McCain to Kyl-Cornyn, every immigration policy proposal would allow a certain number of unskilled laborers to obtain legitimate work visas for a number of years. As one or two terms of such a visa run out, those who are still gainfully employed would be able to apply to convert their work visas into permanent resident (green card) status -- holders of which can apply for citizenship five years later.

This seems to me a perfectly reasonable reform -- even if you don't grant any amnesty whatsoever for existing illegals; and if these visas are only available to people applying from outside the United States -- there should be some mechanism for importing workers for jobs that can't be filled by Americans at prices Americans employers want to pay (because of limits to what American consumers want to pay). And if these "guest-workers" prove themselves to be good citizens, they should be able to become, well, citizens.

The problem for me -- and for the mere tens of thousands of professionals like me -- is that our visas don't work that way. Under an H1-B -- of which only 55,000 new ones are statutorily authorized for each year -- a highly skilled individual (like a software engineer from Bangalore) can work for a particular American employer for six years (two three-year periods). At the end of that time, unless the employer is willing to begin the arduous process of green card sponsorship and can convince the Labor Department that no American possesses even the minimal qualifications for that job -- it is irrelevant if that hypothetical American is far less qualified than the non-American -- the foreign professional has to leave the country. No exceptions.

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=042106A

[jordanianprincess 0]

By Ilya Shapiro

... as I follow the overheated rhetoric about guest-workers and homeland security, legal versus illegal immigrants, and the needs of American business and American labor, I can't help but smile and shake my head. And then go home and cry.

Because no matter how hard I work, how good I am at my job (my day job or this writing thing), how brilliant (and sincere) a personal statement I write espousing my love for this country, its people and values, I will never be able to achieve that which is being offered to certain classes of "undocumented" aliens under any of the proposals being batted around Congressional water coolers. That is, every plan under consideration -- save the "enforcement only" ones that don't even attempt to deal with the reality of 12 million illegal aliens -- contains a measure that allows unskilled foreign workers to be put "on the path to citizenship." This path is simply unavailable to skilled workers like me.

I'm not trying to be cute here: from President Bush to Kennedy-McCain to Kyl-Cornyn, every immigration policy proposal would allow a certain number of unskilled laborers to obtain legitimate work visas for a number of years. As one or two terms of such a visa run out, those who are still gainfully employed would be able to apply to convert their work visas into permanent resident (green card) status -- holders of which can apply for citizenship five years later.

This seems to me a perfectly reasonable reform -- even if you don't grant any amnesty whatsoever for existing illegals; and if these visas are only available to people applying from outside the United States -- there should be some mechanism for importing workers for jobs that can't be filled by Americans at prices Americans employers want to pay (because of limits to what American consumers want to pay). And if these "guest-workers" prove themselves to be good citizens, they should be able to become, well, citizens.

The problem for me -- and for the mere tens of thousands of professionals like me -- is that our visas don't work that way. Under an H1-B -- of which only 55,000 new ones are statutorily authorized for each year -- a highly skilled individual (like a software engineer from Bangalore) can work for a particular American employer for six years (two three-year periods). At the end of that time, unless the employer is willing to begin the arduous process of green card sponsorship and can convince the Labor Department that no American possesses even the minimal qualifications for that job -- it is irrelevant if that hypothetical American is far less qualified than the non-American -- the foreign professional has to leave the country. No exceptions.

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=042106A

That is the sad truth...I work in high tech and we had this discussion not too long ago. What is worse than that, is if an H1B employee is let go from a company for any reason, they have 10 days to find work(and another company willing to sponser them) or they must leave the company.

If they are with a company for some time and begin the green card process and get let go, they gotta start all over again.

[Kajikit 65]

Sounds like the need to fix the whole damned system... citizenship should be the carrot at the end of the stick for ANYONE who comes to the US legally - after you've been here, say ten years on a work visa (which could be renewed more than once) with the stick end for the illegals and people who don't want to play by the rules.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Problem with this qualified category might well be that businesses have long figured out ways to take those jobs to the aliens - at even higher savings. That's difficult for construction work, agriculture, janitorial and hotel/restaurant jobs. They're kind of stuck having to have folks here for these type things. Thus the policy...

[anya-D 8]

[usarandyo 0]

Let us imagine... at the rate things are going in the US, many of us decide to start illegally crossing the border to Canada. What do you think Canada would do? How would we be treated?

[Sinergy 3]

I thought of that the other night.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I thought of that the other night.

lol you're up nights thinking about this?

[almaty 19]

shoot i don't....

sometimes i sit and think and sometimes i just sit...........

[jordanianprincess 0]

Problem with this qualified category might well be that businesses have long figured out ways to take those jobs to the aliens - at even higher savings. That's difficult for construction work, agriculture, janitorial and hotel/restaurant jobs. They're kind of stuck having to have folks here for these type things. Thus the policy...

H1B's are for technical jobs and the company has to go through a process to be able to hire H1B's. First of all, the company needs to prove that they could not find an american citizen or permanent resident to fill the job (within reason). The salary is actually regulated by the CIS. They have jobs grades that you must use when hiring someone and it has to be similar to what others are being paid.

You can't hire an engineer and pay him 10,000 because he is an H1B, the CIS does not allow it. When you submit the H1B application, you have to list the grade of the job and pay within the range set forth by the CIS which is taken from Salarie studies.

This a reason why so many companies are exporting jobs overseas, they can pay engineer 10, 000 if he is in India. But that is another topic.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Problem with this qualified category might well be that businesses have long figured out ways to take those jobs to the aliens - at even higher savings. That's difficult for construction work, agriculture, janitorial and hotel/restaurant jobs. They're kind of stuck having to have folks here for these type things. Thus the policy...

H1B's are for technical jobs and the company has to go through a process to be able to hire H1B's. First of all, the company needs to prove that they could not find an american citizen or permanent resident to fill the job (within reason). The salary is actually regulated by the CIS. They have jobs grades that you must use when hiring someone and it has to be similar to what others are being paid.

You can't hire an engineer and pay him 10,000 because he is an H1B, the CIS does not allow it. When you submit the H1B application, you have to list the grade of the job and pay within the range set forth by the CIS which is taken from Salarie studies.

This a reason why so many companies are exporting jobs overseas, they can pay engineer 10, 000 if he is in India. But that is another topic.

That is exactly what I was saying. They take the jobs to the alien rather than bringing the alien to the job. With the unskilled workers, that can't be done...

[jordanianprincess 0]

Problem with this qualified category might well be that businesses have long figured out ways to take those jobs to the aliens - at even higher savings. That's difficult for construction work, agriculture, janitorial and hotel/restaurant jobs. They're kind of stuck having to have folks here for these type things. Thus the policy...

H1B's are for technical jobs and the company has to go through a process to be able to hire H1B's. First of all, the company needs to prove that they could not find an american citizen or permanent resident to fill the job (within reason). The salary is actually regulated by the CIS. They have jobs grades that you must use when hiring someone and it has to be similar to what others are being paid.

You can't hire an engineer and pay him 10,000 because he is an H1B, the CIS does not allow it. When you submit the H1B application, you have to list the grade of the job and pay within the range set forth by the CIS which is taken from Salarie studies.

This a reason why so many companies are exporting jobs overseas, they can pay engineer 10, 000 if he is in India. But that is another topic.

That is exactly what I was saying. They take the jobs to the alien rather than bringing the alien to the job. With the unskilled workers, that can't be done...

Oh lol guess I should have read it first?