Dear Readers:

This morning we received official confirmation that the H-1B cap for the fiscal year starting October 1^st has been hit. The demand for H-1B visas has been extraordinary even with the creation of exemptions in recent years for a number of types of employers and employees.

Many in Congress see this as a bad sign. Too many foreign workers coming in to take jobs from qualified Americans. But the H-1B numbers are a barometer of the overall US job market. When H-1B usage increases, it is because American workers are generally not available. By the time filing fees, expenses and legal fees are factored in, employers can easily spend $5000 to $6000 for an H-1B worker. After extensions and green card costs are added in, you’re looking at another $10,000+. With H-1B portability rules making it easier for H-1B workers to jump from employer to employer, employers risk spending all this money only to have an employee leave. And stricter prevailing wage rules mean that employers can’t get around these costs by cutting the H-1B worker’s salary.

US unemployment is currently right at 5%. That’s virtually full employment and is one of the lowest unemployment rates in the industrialized world. Yet authorized H-1B numbers are 1/3 of what they were just a few years ago. When employers are unable to find enough workers and foreign workers are unavailable to help fill the gap and they are facing global competition, they are left with few choices.

One of the options that many are choosing is the outsourcing of operations. Should we be surprised that so many professional jobs are now going to India where there are plenty of qualified workers. In the age of the Internet and cheap telecommunications and increasing pressures to keep prices down, the temptations of employers to move operations overseas is enormous. H-1Bs should be seen as a way for employers to keep profitably keep operations in the US. And that SAVES jobs for Americans.

Some employers don’t have the option of going overseas to get the work done. But this is not good news for Americans – either workers in those professions or the public. This is particularly true in health care and education. There is a national shortage of doctors in the US. When there are too few doctors, health care costs rise and access to doctors must be rationed.

There is also a serious teacher shortage in the US and H-1B workers have helped alleviate the problem in many school districts. The only solution for schools with too few teachers and limits on how much they can pay is to increase class sizes. And study after study show that the more students per teacher in the classroom, the worse students perform.

Congress MUST act. The solution is to let the market determine how many H-1Bs are needed, not politicians. The new McCain-Kennedy immigration reform proposal contains just such a measure for a proposed program for lesser skilled workers. It’s about time we had a similar system for H-1Bs. The quota rises as demand increases and drops as demand drops.

We provide an overview of the meaning of the H-1B cap in this week’s ABCs of Immigration article.

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In firm news, this week I moderated an ILW.com program on allied health care workers. The program was the third in a series that also covered physician immigration and nursing immigration.

We’re also pleased to welcome new attorney Maryam Tanhaee to our Memphis office staff. Maryam clerked for our firm in years past and will now be joining us an associate. Her practice will focus on business and employment immigration. Welcome Maryam!

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I also wanted to note the passing of an immigrant to the United States who truly represented the American dream. Most of you probably have heard about the death of Peter Jennings, one of the country’s leading television journalists. He had anchored World News Tonight on ABC News for more than two decades and was one of the most familiar faces in broadcast journalism. Jennings was a high school dropout who immigrated to the US from his native Canada in the early 1960s. He quickly rose to prominence and by age 26 was anchoring the evening news for the upstart ABC television network.

Jennings only naturalized a few years ago. Colleagues said he always wanted to be an American, but was concerned about offending his parents. He voted for the first time in 2003. His colleagues Cokie Roberts and Charles Gibson recalled that Jennings was “giddy” about becoming a US citizen and how excited he was when he voted for the first time.

Jennings contributions to American journalism were enormous. He won 16 Emmy Awards and shaped ABC News as it went from a struggling news organization to a leader. He will be missed.

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As always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients and employers seeking to comply with immigration laws. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind