Estados Unidos reactiva emisión de visas J-1, H-1B, H-2B y L-1

 

El 1 de octubre de 2020, un tribunal de distrito federal en la Asociación Nacional de Fabricantes contra el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (NAM) ordenó al gobierno hacer cumplir la sección 2 de la Proclamación Presidencial (PP) 10052 contra los demandantes nombrados y los miembros de las asociaciones de demandantes.

Los demandantes nombrados incluyen:

• La Asociación Nacional de Fabricantes
• La Cámara de Comercio de Estados Unidos
• La Federación Nacional de Minoristas
• TechNet
• Intrax, Inc.

Por lo tanto, cualquier solicitante J-1, H-1B, H-2B o L-1 que es patrocinado (como visitante de intercambio) por, o solicitado por, o cuyo peticionario es miembro de una de las organizaciones mencionadas anteriormente ya no está sujeto a las restricciones de entrada de proclamación presidencial 10052.

Recordemos que las categorías de visa de esta proclamación presidencial son...

Continúe leyendo en https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4956-reactivan-emision-de-visas-de-trabajo.html

USCIS Denial Rates For H-1B Petitions Have Quadrupled

By Walter Ewing www.immigrationimpact.com//

The Trump administration, acting through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), is disrupting the process by which U.S. employers obtain work authorization for highly skilled foreign professionals.

According to a report from the National Foundation for American Policy, these changes are affecting how often H-1B petitions are denied and the length of time it takes to adjudicate them. The administration is doing this absent any changes in the law by Congress and is circumventing the federal rulemaking process. The report finds that, between Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 and the first three quarters of FY 2019, denial rates for H-1B petitions for “initial” employment for new employees have quadrupled from 6% to 24%. Denial rates for H-1B petitions for “continuing” employment (mostly for existing employees) also quadrupled from 3% to 12% over the same period.

There was a slight increase in the number of petitions approved in the third quarter of 2019. But the report explains this as a matter of timing—it’s likely that adjudicators at USCIS were approving the least difficult H-1B cases first among those selected in the April 2019 lottery. The increase, therefore, was not the result of any change in the Trump administration’s policies.

USCIS is also issuing Requests for Evidence (RFEs) for a much greater share of “completed” cases than in the past. The purpose of an RFE is to ask for additional evidence of eligibility.

In the first quarter of FY 2019, for instance, RFEs were issued for 60% of completed cases, compared to the historical average of 20%. RFEs delay the adjudication of cases and impose up to $4,500 in extra legal expenses on employers.

Most employers will not invest the time and money in an H-1B petition unless they are reasonably certain that the intended employee will qualify. This makes it even more suspect that the government is denying nearly one-quarter of all H-1B petitions and issuing RFEs in such a large number of cases.

What the Trump administration is trying to do—through agency memoranda and other policy changes—is increase the difficulty of success for any H-1B petition.

The report also points to other research which demonstrates that restrictive H-1B policies don’t automatically free up jobs for native-born workers.

Rather, such policies motivate companies to relocate operations abroad to locales where it is easier to gain access to high-skilled workers. This translates into a net loss of employment, business, and innovative capacity within the United States.

Under the Trump administration, USCIS is undermining the U.S. economy by foreclosing the employment of many qualified workers upon whom U.S. industries depend. In the final analysis, this only serves to shrink the job market for all high-skilled workers, both native-born and foreign-born.

 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com/ 

https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4607-USCIS-Denial-Rates-For-H-1B-Petitions.html

USCIS Hits H-1B Cap Within Days, Showing America Needs Foreign Workers

Written by Walter Ewing

As another H-1B season comes to an end, one thing is clear: the demand for educated foreign workers is as high as ever. The annual H-1B cap was reached within a mere 5 business days. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting petitions for Fiscal Year 2020 on April 1. On April 12, the agency announced it’s received more petitions than the entire yearly cap allows.

There is a limit of 65,000 regular visas available each fiscal year for new hires. Another 20,000 visas are for foreign professionals who graduate with a master’s degree or Ph.D. from a U.S. university. In recent years, demand for H-1B visa numbers has far outpaced the supply. In fact, this is the seventh consecutive year that the regular H-1B visa cap was hit within a week.


USCIS issues H-1B policy changes

Beyond the inadequate number of visas, employers faced last-minute USCIS policy changes three years in a row. These policy announcements affected H-1B petitions submitted close to the first day of the filing season. 

USCIS announced a change in how petitions are processed only two short weeks before the start of this year’s filing deadline. Employers said it threw the whole program “into chaos.” 

The agency made another change in January 2019. USCIS reversed the order petitions are selected in. In the past, USCIS selected petitions for the 20,000 “master’s exemption” first. Now, the agency will first conduct a lottery using all H-1B petitions. After that lottery is complete, it will run a second lottery with all remaining “master’s exempt” petitions. 


How this may affect H-1B petition selection

This change will likely result in USCIS selecting more petitions for workers with U.S. master’s degrees or Ph.Ds. But that change doesn’t necessarily represent the best choice for every available position. 

Under the new system, some workers may slip through the cracks. 

For instance, a foreign national with a master’s degree from a U.S. university might have a better chance of getting an H-1B visa number than a scientist with a Ph.D. from a foreign university. 


H-1B workers will still be in high demand

Though these new policies may alter the H-1B selection process, the workers will continue to be in high demand. The inadequacy of the H-1B cap is one sign. But the fact that unemployment rates are low in occupations that use large numbers of workers with H-1B visas is another sign. 

For example, jobs in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) field have low unemployment rates compared to the national average. H-1B workers are most commonly employed in STEM jobs. These low unemployment rates signal a demand for labor that exceeds supply. This means H-1B workers are not displacing native-born workers. 

H-1B workers also tend to earn higher wages than comparable U.S.-born workers, even after accounting for differences in age and occupation. This holds true across fields like information technology, engineering, healthcare, and post-secondary education. Employers aren’t saving money by hiring H-1B workers. This suggests these workers have skills which are in high demand. 

The arbitrary numerical cap on the number of new H-1B visas does not serve the interests of U.S. workers or the U.S. economy. Rather, the cap starves the labor force of talented foreign professionals who fuel economic growth and innovation. 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com

https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4109-America-Needs-Foreign-Workers.html

Taking H-4 Spouses Out Of The US Workforce Would Hurt Women The Most

Written by Walter Ewing

The Trump administration is set to issue a proposed rule that would prevent the spouses of certain high-skilled temporary foreign workers from getting jobs while they are in the United States. The rule—which would bar employment for those in H-4 status—would waste economic potential and have a disproportionate impact on women. 

This new rule derives from President Trump’s “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, which incorrectly assumes that fewer jobs for foreigners automatically translates into more jobs for natives. But barring an entire group of skilled workers from the labor force would at most have no impact on employment opportunities for native-born Americans. At worst, it may actually decrease the number of jobs available to natives. 

The foreign nationals with H-4 status who could lose their work authorization are the spouses of high-skilled foreign temporary workers in H-1B status. Roughly 90 percent are women. Since 2015, these H-4s have been allowed to apply for work authorization in the United States if their H-1B spouses meet certain requirements on the path to permanent residence. 

While the Trump administration believes that native-born workers can simply move into the jobs vacated by H-4s, the economics of job creation does not work that way. According to an analysis by the Cato Institute, pulling the spouses of H-1B workers out of the labor force would result in significant economic losses—including the possible loss of jobs among the native-born. 

As Cato notes, the spouses of H-1B workers tend to be highly educated and, when given a chance, economically productive: 

• Nearly 60 percent have a graduate degree.
• About three-quarters (around 91,000 people, primarily women) are employed.
• Two-thirds of employed H-4s work in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math), much like their H-1B spouses
• About 7 percent are self-employed; meaning that some also employ other workers.

Given their high earnings, this group adds around $5.5 billion to the U.S. economy. This contribution would stop if the labor force loses them. It would reduce federal tax revenue by $1.9 billion and state and local tax revenue by $530 million. 

The impact on employment is harder to quantify. While pulling all H-4s out of the labor force might open up a few thousand jobs for the native-born, this would be cancelled out by the loss of jobs when self-employed H-4s are forced to close their businesses and let go of their native-born employees. 

On top of that, the presence of foreign workers in the labor force—H-4s included—boosts both job opportunities and earnings for the native-born. 

Foreign and native workers have skill sets which complement each other. Employing foreign workers enhances natives’ productivity and, in turn, their wages. Foreign workers also create jobs by spending their earnings in the U.S. economy and paying U.S. taxes. Eliminating them from the labor force would cause both jobs and earnings to drop, hurting native workers. 

Contrary to the claims of the Trump administration, there is no economic gain from keeping H-4 spouses unemployed. They add to the U.S. economy, create jobs and businesses, generate tax revenue, and raise wages for native-born Americans. There’s no down side to this arrangement in economic terms. 

It’s clear the administration’s proposed rule will do more harm than good. It also amounts to a needlessly punitive action against high-skilled foreign spouses—particularly women—who are already putting their talents to use in the U.S. economy. 

Fuente: https://immigrationimpact.com/

https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4072-United-State-forbid-work-to-spouse-h4.html

The Demand For Highly-Skilled Foreign Workers Is Undeniable

Written by Walter Ewing

There is little doubt that highly skilled natives and immigrants have worked together for years to drive innovation in a broad range of fields and to build America’s private sector. 

However, despite ample evidence of the complementary nature of the work done by highly skilled foreign-born professionals, the anti-immigration community in the United States is once again attempting to cast doubt on the value of their economic contributions. 

One of the latest attacks is a report that calls into question the worth of degrees awarded by colleges and universities virtually anywhere outside of the United States. Yet this attempt by the anti-immigration crowd is marred by the use of an irrelevant data set that in no way measures a foreign-born worker’s professional knowledge or subject matter expertise. 

The data set used in the report comes from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)—an English-language test of literacy, numerical proficiency, and computer savvy administered in the United States and 23 other countries. PIAAC is not intended as a measure of specialized knowledge in any particular field of study. Rather, it assesses the practical, day-to-day, “core competencies” of adults in reading, writing, math, and using a computer—in English. 

The report finds that, among college-educated natives and immigrants who took the test in the United States in 2012 and 2014, natives significantly outperformed immigrants on all measures. The report also finds that this performance gap persists even for immigrants who have been in the country for more than five years before taking the test and who presumably had time to improve their English-language skills. 

While all of this may be true, the report uses the gap in PIAAC scores to support a conclusion that goes far beyond what PIAAC actually measures. Namely, that “policy-makers should therefore be cautious in treating foreign degrees as evidence of ‘high-skill’ immigration.” 

Yet PIAAC doesn’t measure the specialized skills of degree holders; it only measures core competencies in the use of the English language, numbers, and computers. It does not assess the engineering expertise of an engineer or the sociological expertise of a sociologist. 

If foreign degree holders were as unskilled as the report implies, they would not be in high demand among U.S. employers. But they are. Consider that, each year, the statutory cap on H-1B temporary visas for highly educated foreign professionals is now filled in a matter of days after becoming available. 

On average, H-1B workers earn higher wages than comparable U.S.-born workers, even after accounting for differences in age and occupation. This holds true in fields like computer and information technology, engineering, healthcare, and post-secondary education. In other words, employers aren’t saving money by hiring H-1B workers, which suggests that these workers have skill sets which are in high demand. 

The economic importance of highly skilled foreign workers—who may have earned degrees both here and abroad—is also apparent from their sheer numbers in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). They account for over one-third of all software engineers, more than one-quarter of computer programmers, over one-quarter of electrical engineers, nearly half of medical scientists—and the list goes on. Some of these professionals received their higher education in the United States and some did not. But all are in demand. 

In short, the report begs the question of why immigrants with foreign degrees are in such high demand by U.S. employers if they aren’t actually qualified in their fields of study. 

This latest anti-immigrant report misuses PIAAC scores in a cynical attempt to denigrate anyone who received a higher education beyond the borders of the United States. But this attempt doesn’t withstand scrutiny because PIAAC scores were never intended to measure specialized bodies of knowledge that highly skilled foreign professionals possess. Knowledge was not invented in the United States, and there are very knowledgeable people who were actually born in other countries. 

 

Source: http://immigrationimpact.com/ 

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4051-Highly-Skilled-Foreign-Workers-Is-Undeniablein-in-United-States.html

With Comment Period Expired, Uncertainty Remains About H-1B Registration Process

Written by Walter Ewing

January 2 marked the final day for comments on a proposed rule by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that would implement a new registration requirement for H-1B visas for well-educated foreign professionals. This proposal would require employers looking to hire H-1B workers to first register electronically with the agency during a specified registration period.

Hasty implementation of the proposal in 2019 could disrupt the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 H-1B petition process and impose significant costs on employers. The proposed rule would also change how H-1B visa petitions are counted, likely restricting the ability of businesses to get the most qualified workers. 

The most obvious problem with the proposed registration system is that it is not yet functional, yet USCIS is counting on it being in place by April 1—which seems unlikely. Even if the system is up and running in time and performs as expected, it would still wreak havoc on the H-1B petition process. 

Companies have already devoted resources to petitioning for H-1B workers under the current system. Having to then switch to a new system at the last minute would be costly, not to mention disruptive to businesses trying to hire the workers they need in a timely fashion. This would be particularly harmful to smaller businesses, which have fewer resources to switch gears in the middle of the petition process. But even big businesses could suffer from a crushing workload in a short span of time if they suddenly have to file multiple petitions under a new system only weeks before the FY 2020 H-1B season begins. 

As for the proposed change in the way petitions for H-1Bs are counted, the harm to employers is less obvious yet costly all the same. Currently, there are two pools of H-1B workers—one in which USCIS selects 20,000 petitions filed for graduates of certain U.S. master’s degree programs (or higher) that are exempt from the annual cap of 65,000; and another pool of applicants who fall under the cap. 

Since demand usually exceeds supply for H-1B visa numbers, USCIS set up a lottery for each of these two pools. The 20,000 U.S. master’s degree petitions are the first selected by lottery. Then, all remaining petitions are eligible for another lottery. 

Under the new proposed rules, however, USCIS would reverse the process. It would first conduct the lottery using all H-1B petitions. Then, after that lottery is complete, USCIS would run a second lottery restricted to all remaining “master’s exempt” petitions. The net result of this change would be an increase in the number of petitions selected for workers with U.S. master’s or higher degrees. Consequently, a foreign national who recently graduated with a master’s degree from a U.S. university might have a significantly better chance of getting an H-1B visa number than a much better-qualified worker who has years of professional experience and a Ph.D. from a foreign university. 

Employer and industry groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have urged USCIS to delay implementation of the new registration system until after the FY 2020 petition season, giving businesses more time to adjust before the next round of H-1B “cap subject” petitions. They are also urging USCIS to reconsider changing the order of the H-1B lotteries so that employers have maximum flexibility to hire those workers best suited to particular jobs. 

As it now stands, a great deal of uncertainty surrounds the H-1B petition process this year. Reflecting the anxiety this has created among employers, more than 750 comments to the proposed rule have been filed. USCIS should take this feedback seriously—and think twice about hurriedly implementing an unfinished system that changes the way H-1B petitions are filed.

 

Source: http://immigrationimpact.com/ 

http://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a3985-Uncertainty-Remains-About-H1B-Registration-Process.html