S. 1932 Status

[sh2005]

Here's someone who we should be in touch with.

The following article on the fate of sec 8001 is published a Newsletter called EETimes. It's the Electronics industry newsletter that has quite a large circulation.

The link is: http://www.eet.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?sssdmh=dm4.161549&articleID=175007344

The Editor's Note of today's copy is the following:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Note
Though the allotment of 65,000 temporary visas for skilled immigrant workers was used up only two months into the current fiscal year, U.S. employers will have to hire local talent because Congress has backed away from plans to increase the number of H-1B visas by 30,000.
-------------------------------------------------------------------


The complete article is:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
EE Times: Latest News
H-1B backers lose budget round


EE Times
(12/21/2005 11:06 AM EST)

WASHINGTON — An effort to increase the number of high-tech visas available to U.S. employers failed Wednesday (Dec. 21) when Congress dropped the provision from a massive spending bill.

The Senate had earlier approved a measure that would have increased the number of H-1B visas and employment-based "green cards" available next year. U.S. high-tech companies had sought the increase after the entire fiscal 2006 allotment of H-1B visas were gone by August 2005. Supporters said the backlog of green card applicants is also growing.

The Senate plan would have required companies participating in the H-1B to pay processing and other fees that would have generated an estimated $300 million for the U.S. treasury.

But the measure was stripped from the budget reconciliation package approved by Congress on Wednesday.

“The system is broken and must be fixed," claimed Sandra Boyd, vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers and chairwoman of the lobbying group Compete America. "We will expect these issues to receive serious consideration by the appropriate committees early next year."
--------------------------------------------------------------------

We have quoted CompeteAmerica.org in our lobbying, so I think it will be very good to let Ms. Sandra Boyd of Compete America to be aware of our efforts. I will look into how we can establish communication with her. I think it will be mutually beneficial for both of us.

sh2005

 

[nozdam]

If anyone wants to talk to competeamerica.org, pls email Ms Lynn Shotwell <lynn_shotwell@acip.com>. I have emailed her a couple of times and she is VERY prompt in responding.

 

[goodyearahead]

S-1932 status from THOMAS.GOV

SUMMARY AS OF: S1932
10/27/2005--Introduced.

Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to recapture unused employment-based immigrant visas and to impose fees for immigration services for intracompany transferees.

ALL ACTIONS OF: S1932

To replace title VIII of the bill with an amendment to section 214(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to impose a fee on employers who hire certain non-immigrants.

AMENDMENT(S) OF: S1932
11/02/2005

To replace title VIII of the bill with an amendment to section 214(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to impose a fee on employers who hire certain non-immigrants.

The above does not clearly indicate that the first point "recapture unused employment-based immigrant visas" got eliminated becuase even the second point in summary "impose fees for immigration services for intracompany transferees" and the amendment says "to impose a fee on employers who hire certain non-immigrants" which is totally different....hoping that the first point is still in the bill for approval

 

[sh2005]

Nozdam,
What is the position in compete america does Ms. Shotwell hold? I think just like us, after the way the results turned, everyone in support of the cause is looking to unite for greater strength and Compete America will welcome even more of our assistance.

If anyone wants to talk to competeamerica.org, pls email Ms Lynn Shotwell <lynn_shotwell@acip.com>. I have emailed her a couple of times and she is VERY prompt in responding.

 

[nozdam]

Nozdam,
What is the position in compete america does Ms. Shotwell hold? I think just like us, after the way the results turned, everyone in support of the cause is looking to unite for greater strength and Compete America will welcome even more of our assistance.

I don't know what position she works as. You can email her and find out details. She is very quick to respond. Pls do not mass email her though

 

[gcby2020]

correspondence with journalist on bloomberg.com

I had responded to the article by a journalist on bloomberg.com. Here it is:


XXXXXXXXX wrote:
Dear Mr. Ferguson,

I read with interest your article on immigration
reform posted on bloomberg.com. I am a physician
scientist from India, in USA since 1995 patiently
waiting for the "green card" since last five years.
Thanks to totally dysfunctional Department of Labor I
am stuck at the first step of the green card process
for past five years. The way things are going, I may
not get my green card for another five years. That
means I cannot change my current job for a total of
ten years. And I am not alone. There are six million
legal immigrants (scientists, nurses, doctors,
computer programmers) in a similar situation. We have
become the collateral damage in the battle for
legalising illegal immigrants. Our careers have been
destroyed in so called land of opportunities. Our only
hope is if progressive writers like you publicise the
pathetic plight of legal immigrants. Otherwise we will
have no choice but to leave this country and try our
luck somewhere else.

XXXXXXXXX, MD

Mr Ferguson responded back promptly. Here is the response from him.

Dear Dr:

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and disturbing letter. I do hope to write more about the immigration issue in the future, and perhaps you would be willing to tell me more of your story when I do. I want to be fair to all sides in this complicated matter.

Thanks again for writing.

Andy Ferguson

 

[vingupta]

HR 4437 on AILA

folks,
HR 4437 full PDF is posted on AILA website. Is this the final bill? if it is it does not talks about cutting EB1/2 visas and also it mandates to appoint a task force to eliminate backlog in immigration (See Sec 219).
Any comments?

 

[indio0617]

folks,
HR 4437 full PDF is posted on AILA website. Is this the final bill? if it is it does not talks about cutting EB1/2 visas and also it mandates to appoint a task force to eliminate backlog in immigration (See Sec 219).
Any comments?

No. This is not the relevant bill.

 

[vingupta]

Than which is the final bill? Because this bill addresses Immigration.

 

[vingupta]

No. This is not the relevant bill.

Also, the house version of s.1932 did not mention cutting the EB1/2 visas to 10%. Is that bill to cut visas to 10% a prposal or final.

 

[GCin-waitng]

Please look at these articles from Southern Poverty Law center. To help get prepared for February. There is so much work to be done. What we are facing is far deeper than i had imagined. But, where there is a will there is a way.

I think it is vital for us to contact human rights folks.
I've caught the flu after being up most of Sunday night monitoring the conference report!



http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=91
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=93

 

[gcby2020]

Please look at these articles from Southern Poverty Law center. To help get prepared for February. There is so much work to be done. What we are facing is far deeper than i had imagined. But, where there is a will there is a way.

I think it is vital for us to contact human rights folks.
I've caught the flu after being up most of Sunday night monitoring the conference report!



http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=91
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=93

Excellent articles. Good job. Good to know the origins of the anti-immigrant groups.

 

[concorde]

Guys, please do not try the spouses can't work......... thing.

Its never going to work... A friend of mine talked to the congressman's secy. and she immediately replied saying what about going to some other visa status like getting a degree (no one is stopping you from doing that) and if the spouses are that qualified they should get a job on their own and then they can get a work visa.

Please do not get me wrong on this.. I am with you all and its hard but makes perfect sense from their point of view.

Besides they do not want us in this country and with the issue of jobs going to foreigners and all why would they encourage spouses to work and take away the American jobs.

I think we should come up with arguements which would look authentic to them to win our case.. somebody mentioned in this forum that we should highlight something which will benefit this country too instead of just benefitting us. We are contributing to the economy of this country in a big way and this country is benefitting from us too. We should just find an effective way to say that to convince the lawmakers.

Any thoughts/comments are welcome....

Guys,

The DO's -

1) We should be attacking the broken immigration system and processing delays above all. Many of us are in this predicament in the first place because of LCs (filed before PERM) and I-140s getting stuck.

2) We should be highlighting the fact that we are pressing for the recovery of all the unused quota beginning with the year 1991. This does not constitute a demand for increasing immigration levels, but merely realizes the full immigration levels within the numerical levels stipulated by law if the quota available since 1991 were to be fully used up.

3) We should be arguing that potential permanent residents having already gone through 2 stages (LC and I-140) are really serious about becoming permanent residents here and there is no sense in keeping them in limbo; so they should be allowed to prefile their I-485s by paying additional fees. This should AT THE LEAST be offered to those who have completed the 1st two stages and have completed 6 years in the US with an excellent immigration & professional track record so that they can choose to remain here and become permanent residents here with dignity that befits a hard working & law abiding professional. Some of these measure would in fact free up BCIS resources from tons of needless paperwork to make things more efficient and concentrate more on matters affecting national security. How long will the system (and what will it achieve?) keep harassing a proven law abiding individual with a genuine intent (of adopting this as his/her home country) with multiple stages and tons of paperwork? Either provide us a good, efficient & predictable immigration benefit keeping a definite processing timeline in mind OR don't, so that we can make our plans.

4) Transferring family based 4th preference quota to employment based. This is because of these 2 scenarios: family based quota 4th preference as it is brings people who seek employment OR brings people who are not qualified for employment and end up burdening the social systems for health care etc.
Neither does the 4th preference address reunification of immediate family members. In fact it leads to chain migration of a non diverse population whose economic benefit to the country are not as much as those admitted through employment based category who are highly skilled and the best brains who pass through stringent scrutiny multiple times in the immigration process.

Now, the DONT's -

1) Raydhan has correctly pointed out. DO NOT mention about spouse not being able to work. Spouse can always work when the GC comes home. We can't ask for apples, oranges, champagne, cakes etc. all the same time. Let us not make it sound like it is our right to get a GC and our spouses have to be working just because the primary applicant voluntarily decided to come to the US and work on a temporary 6 year visa.

2) DO NOT deluge congressmen and senators with umpteen tons of faxes and emails. Let us jointly come up with one letter which precisely bullets out concerns like above, brainstorm it, iterate through it and finalize. Then, we can collect signatures and send out that version to immigration friendly senators, congressmen, lobbyists & the President.

Concluding note -

Our main strength is in collecting statistics and highlighting delays in processing and backlogs eventhough GCs weren't used up to their maximum quota from 1991. I will take this action item and give a followup post when I am ready. I already have some data but need to put it in a meaningful format.

 

[khodalmd]

Nozdam,

Personally, I feel, nothing wrong to have atleast one meeting with NumberUSA. I would suggest, under your leadership, choose five core persons. Do some home work and research and have meeting with them.
We should communicate them as follow:

1. We are legal immigrants and totally separate ourself from illegal immigrants
2. History is witness that legal immigrants significantly contributed in the US economy (present with supporting doccuments).
3. If you stop legal immigrant and H1 holders. Many company will outsourse work nd evantually more American get lay off
4. All the legal immigrants seeking GC are passing through two stern labor sceening process. (Explain labor process). No Legal immigrant is carrying away citizens job. on the countarary, we are creating job. (e.g. On my research, US marine has alloted 2 million research budget, which will provide ten more jobs for USA. My company going to earn few million $$$ from new products developed by me. My company need two engineers since last one year but not getting even after sinceer efforts !! NumberUSA can help us to fill these openings !!!)

5. Even if NumberUSA and US law makers are not convince, and if they have courage, stop 100% legal immigrants for 5 years and see the results!!

Go ahead Nozdam, select your buddies and meet NumberUSA. Worst come worst what will happen? we will not get anything from them but atleast they will know our strength. good luck.

I stongly believe, we should have our own association, "American Employment based Immigrant Association" with minimum 200k members. We should have core group of 10 people in each state to meet all lawmakers. Am I dreaming more? I don't know but dream will come true one day !!!

Good luck!!

Guys the deal with NumbersUSA or anyone for that matter is to PROVE to them that unless EB Immigrants who are Skilled Ppl are kept here, the jobs will move OUT of the country.

Let's present the facts. 2001 the major layoffs start, leaving to thousands of american tech workers jobless. 2003 The economy kinda improves but Outsourcing starts. Come 2004 more outsourcing of Tech jobs. Why is this happening, coz there just isint enough talent in the US to go around. If you cut down number of ppl coming here, but the companies STILL need technical workers with specific skills that the local population doent have, how are those demands gonna be met. THAT my friends shud be the focuss of our debates. Be it with numbersUSA, senators or congressmen.

If skilled immigrants are allowed to keep leaving the country for good, and with the news spreading in our home countries that the "US dream" is actually now a "dream", not too many folks wud wanna come here.

Come on guys SURELY a LOT of our companies themselves value our performances and would hate to see us leave (maybe not the desi consulting companies), because of a GC issue. Even if they CAN replace us with slightly cheaper labour from Fresh H1s, i am sure they wud prefer us, coz with tech skills we also know their Business and how to integrate the 2. If they hire a fresh guy from college or st from say Desh, that person will take his/her time to learn the business, learn all the code that we wrote etc, it's a learning curve.

Lets focuss on exactly WHY we are Needed here as Permanent Residents. I dont even think the argument that we will invest in real estate is gonna work. If we dont invest in real estate, we wil still pay rents and feed the apartment industry. Same holds true for other investments. If you have money u are GOING to invest it somewhere.

 

[tusharvk]

I think it is a good idea to have an association to raise awareness about legal immigrants and specifically EB legal immigrants. There is a tendency to take for granted the fact people have always wanted to come here and hence the best and brightest will always fight to come here.
Presenting facts about the long waiting times, problems faced by EB legal immigrants would be a good idea. Also, need to get involvement from GC holders and citizens who went this route of EB immigration as the citizens will be able to influence the politicians more.
I am not suggesting that people in this forum will ever forget the problems they faced in the process of obtaining their EB GCs. But people should keep on actively supporting such association of EB immigrants even after they get their GCs and\or citizenships.

Nozdam,

Personally, I feel, nothing wrong to have atleast one meeting with NumberUSA. I would suggest, under your leadership, choose five core persons. Do some home work and research and have meeting with them.
We should communicate them as follow:

1. We are legal immigrants and totally separate ourself from illegal immigrants
2. History is witness that legal immigrants significantly contributed in the US economy (present with supporting doccuments).
3. If you stop legal immigrant and H1 holders. Many company will outsourse work nd evantually more American get lay off
4. All the legal immigrants seeking GC are passing through two stern labor sceening process. (Explain labor process). No Legal immigrant is carrying away citizens job. on the countarary, we are creating job. (e.g. On my research, US marine has alloted 2 million research budget, which will provide ten more jobs for USA. My company going to earn few million $$$ from new products developed by me. My company need two engineers since last one year but not getting even after sinceer efforts !! NumberUSA can help us to fill these openings !!!)

5. Even if NumberUSA and US law makers are not convince, and if they have courage, stop 100% legal immigrants for 5 years and see the results!!

Go ahead Nozdam, select your buddies and meet NumberUSA. Worst come worst what will happen? we will not get anything from them but atleast they will know our strength. good luck.

I stongly believe, we should have our own association, "American Employment based Immigrant Association" with minimum 200k members. We should have core group of 10 people in each state to meet all lawmakers. Am I dreaming more? I don't know but dream will come true one day !!!

Good luck!!

 

[Brij523]

My 2 cents

Hi Friends,

Some of you have written lot of things in this thread. I would like to put my 2 cents.

1) Don't sent tons of fax to Senator. I am sure Senator must be pissed by our attitude of sending thousands of fax. This points has been written by one our friend
2) I think if 20 to 40 people form a group and lead, that would be good. Disucss the group stratergy privately.
3) Also these 20 to 40 people should be ready to contribute around $5000 to run the compaign. We need money to do anything. And believe in yourself and run your compaign yourself. I understand for most of us time is constraint and we would have to work through our schedule.
4) Have tons of statistical data to present to Senators. Data speaks. I don't mind analysing the data using engineering tool I have at my disposal.
5) I don't mind leading the effort if I see positive support. Sorry don't take it personnel but I see more talking than doing. And I think because of this many earlier effort have failed.

 

[khodalmd]

Thanks tusharvk for supporting my idea.
WelndenPond,
Could you please work out possibility of forming our own association with a membership fees of $50 (or what ever we decide). As mensioned by tusharvk, we may have good support from citizens who passed through same channel and some friend organizations.

Indivisual appeal to any lawmaker and appeal from association of 200k people will have tons of different.

I think it is a good idea to have an association to raise awareness about legal immigrants and specifically EB legal immigrants. There is a tendency to take for granted the fact people have always wanted to come here and hence the best and brightest will always fight to come here.
Presenting facts about the long waiting times, problems faced by EB legal immigrants would be a good idea. Also, need to get involvement from GC holders and citizens who went this route of EB immigration as the citizens will be able to influence the politicians more.
I am not suggesting that people in this forum will ever forget the problems they faced in the process of obtaining their EB GCs. But people should keep on actively supporting such association of EB immigrants even after they get their GCs and\or citizenships.

 

[meg_z]

Just a thought

Why don't some of us write something about our jobs, how we help retaining/creating jobs,etc? We can send over to Nozdam if he is going to meeting NumberUSA. Khodalmd, you should write. There is another person, a civil engineer, inventing some new techniques. Thanks.

Nozdam,

Personally, I feel, nothing wrong to have atleast one meeting with NumberUSA. I would suggest, under your leadership, choose five core persons. Do some home work and research and have meeting with them.
We should communicate them as follow:

1. We are legal immigrants and totally separate ourself from illegal immigrants
2. History is witness that legal immigrants significantly contributed in the US economy (present with supporting doccuments).
3. If you stop legal immigrant and H1 holders. Many company will outsourse work nd evantually more American get lay off
4. All the legal immigrants seeking GC are passing through two stern labor sceening process. (Explain labor process). No Legal immigrant is carrying away citizens job. on the countarary, we are creating job. (e.g. On my research, US marine has alloted 2 million research budget, which will provide ten more jobs for USA. My company going to earn few million $$$ from new products developed by me. My company need two engineers since last one year but not getting even after sinceer efforts !! NumberUSA can help us to fill these openings !!!)

5. Even if NumberUSA and US law makers are not convince, and if they have courage, stop 100% legal immigrants for 5 years and see the results!!

Go ahead Nozdam, select your buddies and meet NumberUSA. Worst come worst what will happen? we will not get anything from them but atleast they will know our strength. good luck.

I stongly believe, we should have our own association, "American Employment based Immigrant Association" with minimum 200k members. We should have core group of 10 people in each state to meet all lawmakers. Am I dreaming more? I don't know but dream will come true one day !!!

Good luck!!

 

[rayyan]

Thanks tusharvk for supporting my idea.
WelndenPond,
Could you please work out possibility of forming our own association with a membership fees of $50 (or what ever we decide). As mensioned by tusharvk, we may have good support from citizens who passed through same channel and some friend organizations.

Indivisual appeal to any lawmaker and appeal from association of 200k people will have tons of different.

I am willing to contribute 100-200+ for the good cause.

As I posted earlier I have family and re;atives here for over 30+ years and My parents are greencard holders. Let me know if they can be of any help in this process.

 

[charlotteperson]

Also, I can get support from my american collegues and managers. Yesterday a representatives from the NC (Richard hayes office (R) ) left a voice mail on my cell saying that they wanted to speak with me more about my situation and that they do support legal immigration.

My PD was frb 2001 and I did get my GC this april. My husband is stuck abroad because of this retrogression.

I am off next week and I will talk to them. Since they left a voicemail, I believe I can use that and atleast schedule an appoitment with Richard Hayes. In 1999, they did pass a law to use the unused visa numbers. I would like to raise that point.