Tag Archives: visa

Visa Waiver Changes

Posted on by

Visa Waiver Changes May Have Effects for Americans

 

VIsa application form with pen,closeup,for immigration,travel,social issues themes

The Visa Waiver Program has recently undergone some renovations. Fearing that the program could be used to facilitate the travel of personae non grata into the United States, Congress approved changes to the program. Dual nationals and anyone who has traveled to Iran, Iraq, Syria, or Sudan in the past five years are no longer allowed to enjoy visa-free travel. The goal is to prevent radicalized people abroad from entering the United States. This has caused issues for journalists, humanitarian workers, government officials, and businesspeople, according to The Guardian.

The fear for Americans traveling abroad is that this will result in restrictions for Americans traveling to European countries. At the present time, an American can travel to the United Kingdom or France without having to obtain a visa.

Visa-free Travel

38 countries, mostly in Europe, enjoy the ability for visa-free travel into the United States. Obtaining a visa, even a visitor’s visa, can be an expensive and time-consuming ordeal. The visa waiver enables nationals of the approved countries to enter the United States for 90 days. The trip must be for visiting purposes. It is a trust system, in which the traveler pledges to adhere to the rules by not overstaying and not straying from the purpose of the visit. On the visa waiver, a traveler cannot attempt to adjust her status a non-immigrant visa once in the United States.

Immigration Action to be Announced!

Posted on by

Tomorrow, November 20, 2014, could be a momentous day in the history of immigration reform. President Barack Obama is poised to announce an executive order on immigration tomorrow night in prime time. From Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, NV, the president is expected to at least outline action to provide immigration relief to up to five million undocumented immigrants. Immigration reform has been building momentum over the past decade towards the purpose of providing some forms of relief to millions of immigrants who either entered illegally or have stayed past their legal status because they have built meaningful lives in and contributed to the United States. DACA provided limited relief to some children who were brought to the United States without status. Perhaps tomorrow will bring an updated DACA but for adults. The president is also expected to address other immigration issues, such as the low H1B visa cap, the fact that dependents count against the employment caps, and measures to attract and retain more high-tech workers.

 

There are multiple dimensions and issues at play for the president. The prospects of comprehensive immigration reform have ebbed and flowed over the past seven years. There have been times of great Democratic and Republican support; there have been periods of harsh opposition. The DREAM Act has not yet materialized, even though it seems like the least controversial measure to pass. Comprehensive immigration reform seemed like a slam dunk following the November 2012 elections, but consistent opposition have foiled that probability through legislative actions. Seeing that the legislative options have not produced any positive results for hopeful immigrants, the president has decided to resort to executive action. Considering the Republican composition of both houses of Congress and the inability of Congress over the past two and seven years to pass immigration reform, the executive order seems like the next best option.

 

The specter of executive action has roused indignant opposition – both at the nature of the reforms being ordered and the very idea of using the executive order. Even though President Obama has used the executive order infrequently throughout his presidency compared to other presidents, opponents are accusing him of kingship, royalty, dictatorship, and the like for usurping what they see as Congress’ job. Immigration is affirmed as a federal matter and every president since Eisenhower dating back sixty years has issued an executive action on immigration. Political opposition is fierce and when an immigration executive order was considered during the summer, congressional Democrats in close elections begged Obama to hold off, fearing backlash would oust them from Congress. It turns out that Obama delayed action for nearly three months on their behalves, and they were rejected out of office anyway.

 

Comprehensive immigration reform has dominated national headlines for seven years because it addresses one of the most important issues in the United States. There are perhaps 12 million undocumented migrants. Resources can be spent on enforcement and border security, but many intelligent and comprehensive solutions are required to this multi-faceted problem. That is in addition to the variety of legal immigration problems that need solving. While it is unlikely green cards will be available for undocumented migrants, one hope is a pathway to US citizenship for qualifying undocumented immigrants. The possibility announced last week was deferred deportation and work authorization for up to five million undocumented immigrants, with family ties and enough years of residence, as covered in the previous blog post. That is a relatively vanilla action compared to pathways to citizenship naturalization and lawful permanent residence.

 

Whatever happens tomorrow, we can be sure that there will be strident opposition and threats to undermine it. Regardless, prime time

Immigration Reform

tomorrow night could be an important night for millions of people whose lives hang in the balance of uncertainty. The Immigration Attorney and staff at the Law Offices of Andrew Wood commends President Obama for taking action, and awaits the President’s announcement with hopes that millions of hard working individuals will benefit from the upcoming change.

EB-5 Visa

Posted on by

For the first time in its history, the EB-5 Investor visa hit its cap. Given a cap of 10,000 visas per year (starting October 1), the visa reached its ceiling on August 23, 2014. The Department of State issued a notice to signal that the category was unavailable to Chinese nationals until the new fiscal year. However, on September 9, the October Visa Bulletin showed that the category was “current” for China.

EB-5 Visa Requirements

EB-5 Visa

Credit: @blmurch – Flickr

The EB-5 visa requires a one million dollar investment that creates or preserves at least ten jobs for United States workers ($500,000 in “Targeted Employment Area”) from a foreign national. The visa has been available for 20 years, but its popularity has soared in the past six years, following the economic crisis in 2008. 75% of all EB-5 visas have been issued in the past six years, and that percentage looks primed to jump higher with each successive year breaking the previous year’s mark.

EB-5 Visa Proves to be Beneficial

The benefits from the capital invested through the EB-5 visa program are apparent in Pittsburgh. Bakery Square, a renovation project in East Liberty and Shadyside, was built primarily through the efforts of EB-5 investors. 70 investors contributed $35 million into the project. The infusion of capital makes the program attractive to the United States. The program is particularly attractive to investors from countries such as China because they are unable to obtain the E-1 Treaty Trader Visa and E-2 Treaty Investor Visa, which requires that an appropriate commerce treaty with the United States.

The EB-5 visa has been criticized for being a thinly veiled money for visa transaction, but its popularity and benefits are apparent. The recent surging growth of the EB-5 visa should portend prosperously for the United States and local communities. Perhaps next fiscal year, the limit will be reached even earlier and more countries will be pushing the limit.

More H-1B Visas Would Help the U.S. Economy

Posted on by

A report was released by the Partnership for a New American Economy this week, documenting the damage that H-1B denials has incurred on U.S. cities and U.S. born workers. In “Closing Economic Windows: How H-1B Visa Denials Cost U.S.-Born Tech Workers Jobs and Wages During the Great Recession,” (available here) that trend is documented poignantly in the tech fields.

H-1B Visas Causes Firms to Go Overseas

It is estimated up to 120,000 jobs are available each year in tech fields. Only 51,000 American graduates are trained to meet that opening, as only 45% of STEM degrees issued at research intensive universities in the United States are obtained by US born graduates. That widening chasm has forced employers in the sector to recruit foreign graduates, but the difficulty of obtaining their H-1B visas has caused some firms to move operations overseas. For example, Microsoft opted to open a Vancouver office with 400 tech jobs. Smaller firms have felt the pressure acutely and have responded similarly.

H-1B Visa pink slip

Credit: @timothykrause – Flickr

The H-1B visa is critical for foreign workers seeking to ply their craft in the United States. It is frequently issued to computer programmers and health care professionals, as well as to workers throughout the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) field generally. However, it is far from being a panacea to solving labor shortages in those arenas because the quota of H-1B visas that are issued per year lag far behind business needs. The number was augmented to correspond with the tech boom of the late 1990s, but it has reverted from a peak of 195,000 per year in 2003 to 65,000 per year in 2004. It has remained at that incongruous 65,000 (with an exemption) cap since, despite the increasingly vocal urgency of employers. In 2014, for the second year in a row, the number of H-1B applications received in the first week of April far exceeded the number of available H-1B visas for the entire year.

H-1B Visa Fears

A common fear is that increasing the number of H-1B visas to foreigners will lead to wage depression and loss of job opportunity for American-born workers. However, the report authored by Americans for a Renewed Economy rebuts those notions by showing H-1B visa denials have injured American born workers’ wages and job prospects. By examining H-1B visa denials in 2007-2008 and their aftermath in 236 cities, the report shows that those denials hampered job creation and wage growth for American-born computer specialists, college graduates, and non-college workers. American workers lacking a college degree were the most injured by the recession in 2007 and 2008. The growth of jobs for non-college educated U.S.-born slowed down by 7.1% every time a city experienced a 1% “shock” in the available supply of computer workers. The report points to surrounding jobs eliminated as a result of tech jobs being unfulfilled, such as human resources, sales, operations, and management.

Improving the American Immigration System

The Partnership for a New American Economy was formed by Michael Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch for the purpose of improving the American immigration system. Its chairmen include some of the most prominent businessmen and mayors in the United States. The businessmen include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Bill Marriot, Disney CEO Bob Iger, and Boeing CEO Jim McNerney. The mayors include San Antonio’s Julian Castro and Philadelphia’s Michael Nutter.