San Diego (PRWEB) June 15, 2007 -- Foreign employees whose occupations have been certified as being in short supply by the Department of Labor are relishing the huge surprise revealed in the State Department’s July Visa Bulletin. It has unleashed a frenzied, viral buzz through all ethnic communities.
No, Congress did not make any new laws. What happened was that the quota system that limits the number of green cards that are given out each year to these highly skilled workers, opened up for all workers from every country. Simply stated, certified skilled workers from every country came to the front of the line to get their green cards.
In April the Priority Dates were so backed up that certified skilled workers from every country in the world thought that they would still have to wait another four and a half to five years to claim their green cards.
Leon Snaid, a Certified Immigration Law Specialist practicing in San Diego, claims that the Immigration Services will once again be swamped with applications for immigrant visas. This time it will be to snap up the remaining green cards from the quota for this fiscal year.
Snaid recalls how employers wanting to temporarily hire workers with at least a Bachelor’s degree bombarded the Immigration Service in April with petitions. “The Service received almost three times the annual quota allowed for these workers in the first two days and had to have a lottery to select the winners.”
Snaid believes that legal employment immigration is suffering, because of the focus on illegal immigration issues and this hurts the country. “Let’s face it. Employers would not hire skilled foreign workers unless they had to. It’s far easier, cheaper and quicker to hire a U.S. worker.”
“It’s even a huge burden for an employer to hire a temporary foreigner worker.” Snaid explains that with each petition for a three-year employment visa, the employer must pay $750 or $1500, if the employer has more than 25 workers to an Education Fund for U.S. citizen training. Then there is a Fraud Prevention and Detection fee of $500 to monitor possible fraudulent petitions, a $1000 Premium Processing fee so that the petition will have a chance of being adjudicated before the quota is filled and, finally, a $190 fee for the actual petition. So before an employer even pays the attorney to prepare and process the petition through a maze of red tape, the employer has forked out either $2440 or $3190 to the Immigration Service. Typical attorney fees for this type of petition range from $2500 to $5000. That’s not all. The petition is filed in April and, if approved the worker may only start working on October 1.
Critics of the skilled worker temporary program argue that employers go through this trouble so that they can get cheap labor and it displaces U.S. workers. Snaid counters that the law requires that the employee be paid at least the prevailing wage paid to U.S.workers doing the same job in the same geographical area or the salary paid to other employees in the petitioner’s business, if their salaries are higher than the prevailing wage. Also there is the $500 Fraud Prevention and Detection fee.
Snaid concludes that unless the legal employment immigration laws are revised to welcome skilled workers in short supply, U.S. employers will take these jobs offshore. His comments are not original. Captains of industry have testified before Congress that employers will be forced out of the U.S.A. for lack of skilled workers.
For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release contact Leon Snaid at 619-725-0797 or visit www.snaid.com
About Leon Snaid:
Leon Snaid is a certified as an Immigration Law Specialist by the State Bar of California’s Board of Legal Specialization. He is rated as a “Preeminent Lawyer” by Martindale-Hubble, the leading directory used by lawyers to refer their clients to lawyers in other specialties. His biography has appeared in the Marquis’ Whos’ Who in American Law since 1987. He was a Finalist for the Benjamin Franklin Award for his book ''The Newcomers Guide to Living in the USA.,'' which has been revised as ''EasyWayUSA, The Smart and Safe Guide to Living in the USA.''
Contact
Leon Snaid
Law Offices of Leon J. Snaid
619-725-0797
www.snaid.com
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A VISAS: Foreign Government or Diplomatic Visas
Diplomatic visas are used by diplomats and other government officials for travel to the United States.
G VISAS: Employees of International Organizations and NATO
A citizen of a foreign country, who wishes to enter the United States, generally must first obtain a visa, either a nonimmigrant visa for temporary stay, or an immigrant visa for permanent residence. The type of visa you must have is defined by immigration law, and relates to the purpose of your travel.
A visa allows a foreign citizen to travel to a United States port-of-entry, and request permission of the U.S. immigration inspector to enter the U.S. A visa does not guarantee entry into the U.S.
C VISAS: Transit Visas
The "C" visa is intended for those individuals whose travel takes them through the U.S., without intending to actually enter the U.S.
E VISAS: Treaty Traders and Treaty Investors
The Immigration and Nationality Act provides nonimmigrant visa status for a national of a country with which the United States maintains a treaty of commerce and navigation who is coming to the United States to carry on substantial trade, including trade in services or technology, principally between the United States and the treaty country, or to develop and direct the operations of an enterprise in which the national has invested, or is in the process of investing a substantial amount of capital.
I VISAS: Foreign Media, Press and Radio
A citizen of a foreign country, who wishes to enter the United States, generally must first obtain a visa, either a nonimmigrant visa for temporary stay, or an immigrant visa for permanent residence. The type of visa you must have is defined by immigration law, and relates to the purpose of your travel. The "media (I)" visa is a nonimmigrant visa for persons desiring to enter the United States temporarily who are representatives of the foreign media traveling to the United States, engaging in their profession, having the home office in a foreign country. Some procedures and fees under immigration law, relate to policies of the travelers home country, and in turn, the U.S. follows a similar practice, which we call “reciprocity”. Procedures ...
B VISAS: Visitor Visas for Business or Pleasure
The "visitor" visa is a nonimmigrant visa for persons desiring to enter the United States temporarily for business (B-1) and for pleasure or medical treatment (B-2).
H VISAS: Temporary Workers
The Immigration and Nationality Act provides several categories of nonimmigrant visas for a person who wishes to work temporarily in the United States. There are annual numerical limits on some classifications which are shown in parentheses.
J VISAS: Exchange Visitors
The Exchange Visitor Program is carried out under the provisions of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961, as amended. The purpose of the Act is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchanges. International educational and cultural exchanges are one of the most effective means of developing lasting and meaningful relationships. They provide an extremely valuable opportunity to experience the United States and our way of life. Foreign nationals come to the United States to participate in a wide variety of educational and cultural exchange programs.
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