COLLEGE-EDUCATED IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES

A recent report by Qingqing Ji and Jeanne Batalova for Migration Policy Institute paints an interesting picture about college-educated immigrants in the United States.
Contrary to a widely held view, immigrants in the United States have an expansive range of education levels, with about one in three immigrants having obtained a college degree.
Among the key highlights:

• One in six college-educated adults was born abroad. 
• The college-educated immigrant population grew faster than their native counterparts in the 1990s and 2000s. 
• College-educated immigrants were younger than their native counterparts. 
• Almost three-quarters of foreign-born, college-educated adults were Asian and white. 
• About 17 percent of college-educated immigrants were of Latino origin. 
• The foreign born were more likely to hold a doctorate or professional degree than the native born. 
• Of the 9.4 million college-educated foreign born, one-third arrived in the last 11 years. 
• Over half of all college-educated immigrants came from Asia, with India, the Philippines, and China being the top three origin countries. 
• College-educated immigrants were more likely to be unemployed than the native born. 
• About one in ten college-educated adults was self-employed. 
• Foreign-born, college-educated workers were more likely to be in high-tech, science, or engineering occupations.

It is amazing that such a large percentage of our college-educated people living in the United States were born abroad. Unfortunately, the immigration system in our country prevents many qualified college graduates to get here and remain here. It's time for immigration reform!

USCIS DENIES FEWER H-1B CASES IN 2012 COMPARED WITH 2011

Some good news regarding H-1B statistics data. USCIS recently released statistics on H-1B receipts, approvals, denials and other statuses such as administrative closures for FY2012.
According to the statistic, in Fiscal Year 2012, USCIS received 93,152 application and approved 85,273 H-1B cap cases (the others are transfers or change of employers).
Out of all H-1B cases, USCIS has denied 3,899 cases (versus 5,575 denials the year before on approximately the same number of filings in FY 2011), so this is a good trend that less of these petitions are denied overall. However, no statistic was issued on the number of H-1B RFEs (or requests for additional evidence). This is a significant improvement over FY 2010 where 102,343 H-1B petitions were filed and a whopping 12,120 were denied. This was mainly due to the issuance of the Neufeld memo on the employer-employee relationship and a high rate of denial for IT consulting companies that have been hammered by that memo. Now it is better and approvals are forthcoming even for IT consulting clients.
Overall, there is some good news here with less denials - however the administrative closure and other actions - in 2,163 petitions versus 1,719 in FY2011 may indicate that more petitioners withdrew H-1B petitions versus last year for unknown reasons.

USCIS DIRECTOR ACKNOWLEDGED WEAKNESS OF IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

From ILW.COM:
Speaking at MIT recently, USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged that our current immigration system is stifling economic prosperity, particularly in the high-tech and start-up fields. To combat this, Mayorkas notes the service is training additional adjudicators to handle petitions like H-1B's and that adjudicators have been advised to be somewhat less critical of petitions coming from start-ups than they were five years ago. Professor Vivek Wadhwa lauded Mayorkas' moves, but also raised the continuing issue of human error that USCIS has not been able to properly address - that the same petition before different adjudicators might yield disparate results. Wadhwa was also critical of the USCIS policies that make movement by entrepreneurs difficult and time consuming, often to a point where those bright people choose not to bother with hassle that accompanies immigrating to the U.S. USCIS deserves some credit for publicizing immigration options for entrepreneurs, like through the new "Entrepreneur Pathways" website, but the service has not yet done the heavy lifting, so to speak - relaxing its draconian policies that Mayorkas publicly admits no longer work in today's global economy and cutting out unnecessary red tape. How else can and should the service tackle this growing problem?

Here are a few ideas of my own:
First, get rid of the Neufeld memo requiring "employer-employee" relationship in the H-1B context. This is ridiculous that an entrepreneur who is a majority shareholder in a business cannot legally work in it under an H-1B visa. It was allowed before and should be allowed now. Other temporary visa types permit this, why is the H-1B different?
Second, limit the RFEs or request for additional evidence in legitimate cases. Open up communications with immigration lawyers who can pinpoint problems in the system and punish/discipline USCIS officers who are abusing the system and creating problems for legitimate applications.
Third, approve National Interest Waiver or NIW petitions for entrepreneurs that have technology inventions or employ a certain number of U.S. citizens.
I have a few more ideas but the top 3 are the most critical right now.

HOUSE PASSES STEM BILL

The STEM Jobs Act (H.R. 6429) has passed the U.S. House of Representatives. This is a bill to allow 55,000 additional immigrant visas to U.S. graduates of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in advanced degree programs.
However, the House bill is not likely to pass the Senate because this is not really an increase of the overall immigrant visa pool, which is what is really needed (both for the advance degree category known as EB-2 and the professionals or skilled workers known as EB-3).
The STEM Jobs Act would end the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery program that awards visas to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. to increase the diversity of immigrants coming to the U.S. Many Democrats oppose ending that program and President Obama also opposes the STEM bill because he wants it as part of comprehensive immigration reform, which he wants to pass next year.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform is sorely needed but smaller steps would also be very helpful. There are many things the President and USCIS Director Mayorkas could do now to fix without the need to wait for Congress. I am waiting on Director Mayorkas to call me at 770-913-0800 and I will explain (but I will not be holding my breath)...

OBAMA OBJECTING TO STEM BILL - HIGH TECH VISA REFORM

Bad move by President Obama on immigration - the White House just opposed the STEM immigration reform bill backed by many technology companies to allow U.S. educated graduates in science, including computer science, engineering and mathematics to have a faster route to a green card or permanent residence in the U.S.

The White House just announced today that it is objecting to the Republican-backed STEM Jobs Act of 2012, which proposed to add 55,000 immigrant visas available to foreigners who earned a master's or doctoral degree in certain science or technology area from a U.S. university. The STEM bill has been supported by Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Qualcomm, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The reason for the White House objection is that the Obama administration wants an overhaul of the immigration system by enacting a Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). 

While it is true that CIR is badly needed for the country, the President should focus on fixing the problem in smaller steps and not object to any measure that would alleviate visa backlogs and hardship to people. Passing smaller measures  like the STEM bill would still help tens of thousands of immigrants achieve permanent status. 

DOCTOR SHORTAGE COULD WORSEN

A recent article by USA today talks about the fact that the U.S. suffers from a significant Doctor shortage and it is about to get much worse.
The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts that by 2020, the shortage will amount to more than 90,000 doctors, including 45,000 patient care physicians. The shortage is expected to worsen as the boom generation is getting older and will require more medical care in the near future and the new healthcare mandate would add more people to the patient pool. To make matters worse, a third of all doctors plan to retire this decade.
Generally, the states with high median incomes tend to have more doctors per capita, while poorer states tend to have substantially fewer because they are less attractive to doctors.
This is why expanding immigration programs for foreign doctors is a key in alleviating this shortage. Expanding the Conrad 30 program (where more than double the spaces are needed in most states), creating more federal programs (such as the USDA had but closed) and increasing the H-1B quota will help make the U.S. more attractive for foreign doctors.
Read the full article at: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/10/20/doctors-shortage-least-most/1644837/

U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY STIFLES IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP

A new study by the Kauffman Foundation indicates that since 2005, less U.S. companies were founded by immigrants or foreign-born entrepreneurs, with the most significant drop in the state of California within technology firms.
The Kauffman Foundation is right on the money. Our immigration system is more and more unwelcoming to immigrant entrepreneurs. Coupled with a recession and more difficult business environment in the U.S. in the past few years, less immigrant entrepreneurs are finding the U.S. an attractive place.
The Kauffman Foundation report shows that the proportion of companies founded by immigrants nationwide has dropped to 24.3 percent from 25.3 percent in the past five years. In Silicon Valley, the decline was worse: dropping to 43.9 percent from 52.4 percent.
This is alarming for anyone who cares about innovation, job creation or U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace. This is what we have been telling everyone for years, that we have a broken immigration system that needs to be fixed and welcome entrepreneurs.
The U.S. can reverse the trend of declining immigrant entrepreneurship with changes in policies and opportunities. We really ought to have start-up business visas for these entrepreneurs and expand the number of green cards for skilled foreigners to work in these start-ups in order to make the U.S. more attractive.
USCIS has started taking encouraging steps like their entrepreneurs in residence program, which had little effect so far. What we need is opening doors and our immigration system for entrepreneurs who bring innovation, investments and jobs to the U.S.
Hopefully the new elections will bring a different Congress which will actually do something about the problems in this country, instead of the “do nothing” mode we have endured so far.