A few weeks ago I wrote a post about what I feel has been chronic mistreatment of H-1B workers by the immigration system. This week, yet another chapter in the American Immigration Bizarro-land story has unfolded, as thousands of legal workers, following an official State Department advisory, prepared to file Green Card applications, only to be told, in some cases after they had already filed, that the USCIS would not be accepting any applications at all.
The Times explains the complicated chain of events as follows:
The episode started on June 12, when the State Department announced in a monthly bulletin that green cards would be available starting July 2 for applicants across the range of high-skilled categories. That was a signal to immigrants who have been working in this country on temporary visas that they would be able to apply to become permanent residents.
Thousands of immigrants rushed to obtain certified documents, assemble employer sponsorship papers, take medical examinations and dispatch their applications. Many canceled travel plans so they could be in the United States when their applications arrived on July 2, as the law required.
But on Monday, the State Department announced that no more green cards were available. Snared in the turnabout were well-educated, highly skilled, legal immigrants, many of them doctors and medical technicians, with long work experience in this country. All had obtained federal certification that no American workers were available for the jobs they hold. (link)
There’s more to it — the goal here was to reduce the extensive USCIS backlogs — but the reversal means the backlogs are reinstated. Now potential applicants may have to wait as many as four or five years to apply again, leaving many people in limbo. (The Times has a good interview with an Indian doctor in Illinois, who is deeply distraught about this.) As I’ve said before, the cost of an extremely slow and unpredictable immigration system comes in people’s lives: waiting 5-10 years for a Green Card without being certain of success is dispiriting at best, and soul-crushing at worst.
Incidentally, there is also an illuminating breakdown of this bizarre episode at Murthy.com. And our blog-friend Arzan Wadia had a post on this this past Monday, where he made his feelings known.
Are you one of the people who applied for a Green Card this past Monday? You may want to get in contact with a Lawyers’ Group called American Immigration Lawyers Federation (AILF). They are planning a class-action lawsuit against the USCIS over its sudden reversal, and will probably be looking for plaintiffs who meet a certain profile to join the case (see this PDF FAQ).
And I salute to you sir for posting this!!
There are a few aspects to this. This attitude of the US authorities is going to affect the US’ appeal to immigrants. With so many of it’s skilled immigrants coming from India and China and increasing pay scales and quality of life there, the appeal of the US has already gone down. Countries like Australia and Canada being a lot more immigrant friendly also does not help. I know quite a few people who have gone back for the simple reason that they got tired of the headaches – the seemingly never ending wait and tomes of paperwork one has to keep on filing plus to maintain status, the ‘security check concerns every time one leaves and enters the country, etc. We’ve already touched upon how one gets tied to ones employer as long as the GC is being processed and employers are well aware of this and sometimes exploit that fact.
Plus it almost seems like the US’ attitude to it’s skilled workers is not one of an awareness of a symbiotic relationship but one akin to the family based program where the US is primarily handing out GCs though it could easily not do it. In the case of skilled workers, the US benefits quite a bit from this too economically and it would help it’s own cause if the guys in immigration realized this. And if things were not bad enough, now they make people jump, do all the paperwork and then tell them to bugger off. Maddening!!
Countries like Australia and Canada being a lot more immigrant friendly also does not help. I know quite a few people who have gone back for the simple reason that they got tired of the headaches – the seemingly never ending wait and tomes of paperwork one has to keep on filing plus to maintain status, the ‘security check concerns every time one leaves and enters the country, etc.
Yes, I know people who have done this too. I even have one friend who canceled her U.S. green card process to pursue a Canadian green card instead. Though it might be said that the high tech equalization has been a lot quicker than the equalization in fields like medicine and health care. A U.S. Doctor’s salary is still going to be something worth the hassle for many people.
Plus it almost seems like the US’ attitude to it’s skilled workers is not one of an awareness of a symbiotic relationship but one akin to the family based program where the US is primarily handing out GCs though it could easily not do it. In the case of skilled workers, the US benefits quite a bit from this too economically and it would help it’s own cause if the guys in immigration realized this.
I don’t think most people are even aware how ridiculous the green card process is for skilled workers. And for the most part, politicians don’t care, since immigrants can’t vote anyways. The only power immigrants can assert (other than leaving) is to sue, when the government promises something that it doesn’t deliver — as happened in this case.
I’ve been waiting 11 years. I applied a long time ago. I’m fully qualified in every way. They JUST WON’T give it to me! No reasons given, even after nine inquiries except for a vague “pending with service center”.
Here’s my take on it. It’s about control of labor. A worker with a pending green card is little more than an indentured laborer – has no bargaining power, is chafing under the chains, and does what he’s told. One with a green card is a free man, just like an American. This system, along with the H-1B process, allows them to control hundreds of thousands highly skilled, educated workers. Therefore this “mysterious” wait affects only Employment based green cards. Yesterday in the Wall St Journal they had a break out of total 2006 green cards granted by country (Mexico:173753, China:87345, Philipinnes: 74607, India:61369, Cuba:45614). What they DIDN’T tell us was how long the waiting line was by country. Everyone knows how big Cuba is compared to India and china. The size of the waiting line will show who has been singled out to be kept waiting outside the door. Yes, fellow brownies, it’s us.
The GC process is by definition racist.
What can you do about it? It’s just the way the damn thing is built up. No one cares how well you can contribute to the system, or how many jobs you create indirectly.
That is very true, it take MUCH less time for (a person of) many other nationalities to get a GC (even without a college degree) than an Indian with a Masters.
http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_3236.html http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_3219.html
Heck, even Chinese Masters grads have around an year of wait, Indians 4 years.
Thank you Amardeep for the post. It could have meant that those on H4 could have the ability to work and the pride of independence for the first time. I could also mean the desi’s stuck with bad employers could have got out of their indentured worker situation. Alas, it did not happen so soon. Thank you and SM for bringing light to this all-important issue for some of us stuck in the legal limbo.
my handle on SM says it all…..
The time has come for America to allow H-1B workers to join the Armed Forces. If you can speed up the citizenship process by fighting in Iraq, why not the green card process too?
Although others have noted it, I want to point out that this long wait for EB-2 is only for Chinese and Indians, no one else. 2 years for Chinese, 4-5 years for Indians. If you have a chance at all at EB-1, go for it.
Because all other nationalities can do their EB-2 right away, almost no one else (even though they have PhDs and lots of papers)chooses the EB-1 route because of the additional burden of proof that you are “outstanding”.
not to be confused with AILF
Amardeep, thanks for posting on this again. While I empathize strongly with all those affected by this apparent display of arbitrariness, let us also keep a sense of larger perspective, if only to understand the significant underlying trends that get ignored when the issue is approached subjectively. I have made some of these points in an earlier comment, but want to elaborate a little more in this one.
The whole business of employer-sponsored Green Cards was tailor-made (and jury-rigged) for a different kind of economy – one in which people did in fact have permanent, full-time, life-time jobs, staying with an employer for their entire career. An economy in which innovation time lines were long, considerable parts of the innovation chain were proprietary, where government sponsored projects for the Space Race, or the Cold War kept the native-born techno-labor force quite completely tied up, so companies had to employ ‘foreigners’ in their non-classified operations. And geo-politically, both Russia and China, as well as most of Eastern Europe – and their vast technical labor pools – were not only unavailable but also ideologically antagonistic. Another source of pressure on the US native labor market was the large US military and its associated technical labor – in the 1960s and 1970s the military itself was about three or four times as large in absolute numbers as today – in a total population about two-thirds of today. Military contractors employed a much higher portion of the technical labor pool than today, and foreign-born workers were largely excluded from these jobs. So, with all of these underlying trends, Indians had a natural advantage, and employers (and bosses) were forced to swallow whatever color-prejudice they may otherwise have had, and employ Indians, and ‘sponsor’ them for ‘Green cards’ in their commercial, non-military operations. And the US economy itself was quite literally exploding – in the 1960s, the US was the US (Mira Kamdar in ‘Planet India’ claims India is now the ‘new’ US) – the US economy was growing at 7% – India’s at less than half that.
Back then, India itself was considered to be in the ‘Soviet camp’, whatever the subtleties on the ground. Broad US strategy therefore encouraged talented Indians to immigrate – capturing them for the US economy while denying them both to India, and secondarily to the Soviet side. In this way, with both demand and supply factors in its favor, as well as the overall strategic picture, ’employer-sponsored’ Green cards made sense, never mind the many local injustices and unfairnesses that happened at the time of the ‘labor market test’ for native-born workers. The sponsored worker, on the other hand, also gave up labor market mobility, and settled for, usually, a lower than prevailing wage (never mind, again, that the process was required to show that the worker accepted nothing less). The overall system accepted these widely-known shortcomings and unfairnesses for the ‘advantages’ seemed to outweigh them. There were, after all, Cold (and hot – Vietnam) wars to be fought, the US economy was strong, the visibility of Indians was low, their competence acceptable, no problem.
But what happened? The Cold War was ‘won’, the Berlin Wall came down, and with it, the East European labor market became available – first to West European firms, then also to American ones. China began permitting its students to immigrate, then extended that privilege to anybody who qualified, and simultaneously opened up its local labor market to US firms. So there was suddenly a surfeit of all kinds of labor from low-end unskilled to high-end (think ex-Soviet Nobel physicists). And the long-distance availability of high-tech labor increased phenomenally with the internet – which (ironically) had started as a Cold War project, designed in part to ensure secure military communication!
And US firms responded by outsourcing. Today no private sector professional job is permanent any more, and company strategies do not require captive technical workforces, as long as the IP itself is secured. Even more, companies collaborate with each other at all points of the innovation chain, and share what would previously be considered proprietary data in the interest of setting inter-operable standards. So the idea that a single worker was ‘indispensable’ – never very strong in a capitalist system – was weakened to the point of ludicrousness. At the same time, the visa regime became more accomodating – not entirely coincidentally – the H-1B was introduced in 1990 – first as a way of bringing in cheap high-tech labor while companies restructured and laid off their native work forces during the recession of the early 1990s – then as a permanent aspect of company labor strategy – outsource, in-train, and substitute. (A pre-1990 H-1 was available as a bridge between F-1 and GC, and this is the source of the widespread misconception that ‘H-1 was a stepping stone to the GC’. Of course, ‘dual intent’ was retained for H-1B, but simply looking at the numbers of H-1B vs numbers of GCs available shows that this dual intent was meant to be theoretical for the vast majority of H-1Bs, who were to be cheap, just-in-time workers).
So in these circumstances, the entire previous logic of ’employer sponsored Green Cards’ vanishes. A company has no need to sponsor someone when they can use hir for upto six years or as long as necessary (longer than virtually all high-tech innovation cycles). Conversely, in a situation where native ‘citizen’ workers are being laid off, what good will a green card do for the ‘foreign-born’ and visibly-marked (by color or accent) worker? You can still get laid off, will probably be the first to go as a ‘mere’ GC-holder, and there is always a pool of H-1B workers – both in-country and just waiting offshore to come in and substitute for you at a lower wage.
Mind you, the visa system has been smart enough to accomodate labor needs of employers in non-globalizable occupations too – nurses, occupational therapists etc (special H-1s) and teachers (yes, there are teachers in big-city public school systems on special H-1s – from India – not H-1B) at the high end, and visas for nannies and ‘au pairs’ at the other, while the economy simultaneously also uses the so-called ‘illegals’ for everything from pool-boys to construction work, not just agricultural work. And at the super-high end, faculty members at US colleges and universities get their GCs ‘for free’ – from their jobs alone, which do not need to meet even pro-forma labor market tests. At the even higher end – national interest waivers exist to meet the needs of defence employers. So employers with demonstrable (‘genuine’) needs get their employees, and all the rest – who use H-1Bs as part of their globalization strategies, also get theirs. Who’s losing? The US economy is globalizing – in a real sense, where its workers reside does not mean very much any more, they are still adding value to the US economy no matter what their nationality and where they live. They may not consume at quite the same rate as they would in the US – but even that is now changing – have you heard how the ICT workers – not just the call-center types – live in Bangalore? 🙂 And it may even be said, given environmental and climate change concerns, would you rather the same value be added to the US economy at lower consumption levels (and so lower environmental cost) or at a higher environmental cost? The cultural fusion that the globalized, internet-mediated economy makes possible is phenomenal – blogs in Pune and Bangalore describe lives that are every bit as fun and exciting and readable as in Boston or Toronto, for example.
Unless these underlying dynamics are factored into our understanding, the GC story will continue to appear to be one of official arbitrariness, racism, individual unfairness, even humanitarian suffering. All of which will also be true, but there is also a bigger story, which nobody, certainly not the MSM, will tell us, and which we remain ignorant of at our own eventual peril.
Thanks Amardeep for blogging about this.
Thanks Brother for the post. Yes, I canceled my India trip, spent $2k, hassle to get medical, certificates only to know they would reject my case on the first day when they said they would start accepting.
Correct me if I am wrong , I thought it is the prerogative of any government to issue work permits and green cards and nobody can demand it. Regarding the so called recent mess , the circulars clearly indicated that it was not going to be free for all , people were invited to apply against any unutilized employment based quota for GC and when the total for the year (60000) got filled the window was closed tight. This matter is not class actionable , spending time anad effort with immigration lawyers, will be a big waste.
True, but its not the prerogative of the govt. to set and un-set rules every 15 days. Such arbitrary changes cause very real hardship for people who are following the rules that were set up. No one really complained that the backlog was too long, just that the dept. shouldn’t switch rules on a whim.
My friend was in India and when she heard the news that they were accepting applications, She and her family flew back after a weeks visit in India- couldnt secure return tickets in Economy and spent $10Gs to fly in business class- only to come back and have the doors slammed on their face. Whoa! we thought we had it hard last year but this sucks.. I hope they sue them big time
Chachaji – That was very insightful. Thanks! However, it seems like your assertions are based on the assumption that the H1-B worker of today is readily expendable and easily replaced. I think this is a simplistic point of view. Yes, there are indeed a large number of those H1-B workers who come through body shoppers like Infosys and don’t really bring much to the value chain. But a lot of these do in fact return and are coming and going on a temp basis.
Then there are those who come here, get a Masters or a Phd. These people do enter the commercial non research workforce but they bring a certain value. Plus after they have been here for a few years and are working on leading edge stuff, if anything their extendability decreases. I work at a firm where we only hire MS and PhD people. While we are selective, I know we are not overly so. But still we have a tough time finding people and thus everytime someone leaves, it’s a big endeavor to replace them and also a setback in terms of getting them upto speed. Thus we have every reason to retain people. Also, a lot of these people we end up hiring are indeed immigrants. Thus I am not so sure that all H1-Bs are easily expendable.
Now I repeat my assertion that having the issues I pointed out in #2 are against American commercial interests. Thus while it may be the Govt. prerogative it may not be in it’s best interest. These very people if they return add to the competitiveness of India, China, South Korea, Turkey, etc. Of course as pointed out by SkepMod – the current situation is in fact unfair but even if we discount that and just consider US interests, there is every reason to fix this mess.
According to NY times, 25000 applications were approved in 2 days before july 1st.
That is 6.9 seconds per application in case nobody went to the bathroom. Assuming 5 hours of bathroom breaks sleeping and eating time each day it comes to app. 5 seconds per approval Assuming there are 500 workers working on this, it is app. 5 minutes per application What could drive a govt. agency to do this?
Yes, you’re Wrong. It is not the “prerogative” of the executive branch to pick and choose people to give visas to and deny it to others. That prerogative lies with Congress. congress makes transparent laws and the executive branch has the authority/obligation to carry it out.
the USCIS publishes to the world a certain set of steps/rules required for a green card. when an individual makes an application and has played by the rules and gone through the system, there is an implied contract that is beyond the whims of a bureaucrat.
the executive must do ONLY as per the law, not as per their whims and fancies.
I would love to read comments on Ram’s opinion, since that is what crossed my mind too, re. class action. I suspect for the majority of Americans this is a non-issue, partly because of the perception of GC applicants as unethical job thieves because of things like this. A few years ago when I had to stand in line from 2am for three successive days in fromt of the USCiS office in San Jose for my Adjustment Of Status, I felt like dirt. That time it was still called the INS & there were no loos in the compound, & we were wrapped in blankets in the January winter. Talk of huddled masses! There were no loos, & one had to drive to a Dennys a mile away to use the restroom. The customer service skills of the contracted-out guards were non-existant & to me it seemed they would take perverse pleasure in telling you you couldn’t get in because the day’s quota of applicants was over. Nothing else in the US has ever made me feel that bad. But I knew that it was my choice to stand in that line because I was looking for a better life etc etc & that since this was the only shop in town, I better suck up & shut up.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Green_card_hopefuls_to_resort_to_Gandhigiri/articleshow/2183334.cms
related news item
Tipu:
why did u have to stand in line for three days? were u part of the 245(i) group?
Interesting
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indian_green_card_hopefuls_now_plan_Gandhigiri_in_US/articleshow/2183334.cms
@yabadaba – I was waiting in line to file my family-based adjustment of status application for my Green Card. Since then the USCiS has started the online InfoPass system, by which as I understand, one doesn’t need to stand in long lines.
@duh – the payment of the FICA & Medicare taxes by H1B workers is my pet peeve. I guess it has to do with the dual intent of the H1B (you can return to your country of origin or get on the path of citizenship via a Green Card). But that’s a lot of money to leave on the table for something you may never use – social security or medicare – because the country’s immigration laws make it almost impossible for a lot of people to get a GC. Everytime I hear the usual rant about how H1B workers are bleeding the economy by not spending any money in the US but repatriating everything to their country of origin, I think of how taxes paid by the same workers are financing the ‘government paid’ welfare enjoyed by many Americans. A few years ago I remember reading that the totalization agreement referred to in the ToI excerpt was in effect with some European countries. Not sure how true that is.
The NYT article mentioned that many of the affected foreign workers are doctors & medical technicians. In the light of today’s news, I think we will find the anti-immigration forums happy with this SNAFU with the 485s.
tipu, we’re talking about billions of dollars taken by Govt dictat. I alone have paid more than $45000 in Social security taxes. If you take 100000 people paying $5000 for 6 years on average, it’s $3 billion. and then if we are denied green cards on flimsy grounds (did not respond to RFE that was sent to old address) after waiting for 8+ years, it is injustice.
http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10003.html
So, I read this story a couple of days ago, and know people affected by it, but I am still scratching my head as to how such a major snafu happened? Is it really something as “innocuous” as competing pressures between State and USCIS?
Eventually, I think it is actions such as Microsoft’s, caused by so much frustration that they are explicitly voicing their opinions (with appropriate caveats, of course), which will turn the tide. This particular story is directly relevant only to H1-B’s, but I figured it would still be useful.
“It does help us address that challenge we have in the United States of hiring very qualified people, many of whom are graduating from schools in the U.S., but who cannot acquire the necessary documentation to work in the U.S.,” Gellos said.
The state of affairs are indeed pretty sad. Most people on the quoted blog who supported the current state of affairs failed to understand that these are not people “stealing” their jobs. They already have jobs, but are simply being put through this due to a flawed system. Increasing their suffering is not going to improve the situation.
As for the “stealing of jobs” argument, I have rarely come across a company which has an explicit policy of hiring only foreign nationals and I think the “unsaid policy” argument is BS. In fact, I have come across the exact opposite of this. On the other hand, most companies interview and/or appoint you regardless of your nationality. In some cases the companies don’t even know till the actual HR paperwork phase that the candidate is a foreign national. The real crux of the problem is a lack of American students majoring in engineering, technology, math, etc. On the contrary, the US produces more sports therapists than engineers. And this is especially true for Masters and PhD’s. The few that are there are brilliant but more are definitely needed.
This totally sucks. I played the INS roulette for sometime before realizing that it is a rigged game and the house always wins. To all H1B holders who are not emotionally locked into USA may I suggest migrating to Australia. Some advantages:
1) You can buy a new 4 bedroom house in Melbourne for less than 350K (AUD). 15 miles from the CBD. 2) Getting a parental visa takes 1 week. and parents can stay upto for a year at a time. 3) The AUD has been rising against the USD due to the resources boom. 85 cents at the last count. 4) Australia is much closer to the action (india / china) 5) We speak English not American. 6) We play cricket. You can watch Sachin play at the MCG for less than $45. Even have a beer with Warney. 7) No one really wants to bomb us – although many talk about it.
8) Free health care with the option of additional private health insurance. 9) Australians have a special visa category to the USA – mostly unfilled ie if you want to leave. 10 ) 1 year to get a PR/GC and 2 years to become a citizen. 11) We keep illegal immigrants locked up and out of sight. 12) No affirmative action – so your kids can become doctors. 13) $4000 baby bonus / child care benefits/ dole.
Net result : Quality of life is much better after considering ones income.
Thanks for the post. Skilled, legal workers are planning a unique protest with the USCIS for this recent farce.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Green_card_hopefuls_to_resort_to_Gandhigiri/articleshow/2183334.cms
WASHINGTON: Hundreds of Indian high-skilled professionals in the US who have been on a roller coaster ride over the past month in their effort to get the green card will draw attention next week to their frustration — with white flowers.
In a unique display of Gandhigiri — a demonstratively peaceful Gandhian protest popularised in a recent Hindi movie — scores of Indian H1-B visa holders who feel jilted by the abrupt changes in US immigration rules are planning to deluge US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Emilio Gonzalez with flowers on July 10.
Their peaceful venting stems from a June 12 USCIS notification that promised to fast track the green card process for tens of thousands of skilled foreign professionals and their spouses — only to disappoint later. The announcement led to a stampede in countries such as India and China for obtaining birth certificates and other related documents needed for the process. Applicants spent thousands of dollars to meet the requirements and the deadline.
If a person from 100 years ago were to visit the world now in a time machine, looking at all the technological progress in the world, etc. I think this would be their reaction to this immigration clamor and stuff:
“ladies and gentlemen… life is short… live wherever… it doesn’t look like it matters so much as long as you dont live in caves or jungles… you already have such an superior life, wherever u live, with all these mind boggling things like cell phones, computers, internet, air conditioning, air travel, etc. etc… whether its india, america, australia. “
oh, and btw, if a person were to visit from 100 yrs ahead into the future, this would be their message:
“ladies and gentlemen, the differences among lifestyles between the countries of the world that you currently see will continue to reduce at ever faster rates through your lifetimes… wealth will gradually spread(‘outsourcing’ is just the beginning), and the world gets more and more homogeneous, finally reaching a point, where the concept of countries is pretty much irrelevant, due to the ultra high levels of ease of communication and movement(leading to a totally random mixtures in populations of various countries through intermarriages, etc. and constant travel and people will move across the globe with the ease at which they move across their cities currently – this has already begun in some sense in the past 50 yrs) In a less speculative tone, within/during the lifetime of the next generation, communication will continue to become even more inexpensive and infinitely easier(we can already see this one) and a similar change is due even for movement. and once that happens, boundaries will look so absurd that they dont make any sense”
if you are wondering how i got these insights…. yes, i got them by traveling back and forth in time :p
Check out the collection of comments and views on the net
http://crunchnot.blogspot.com/2007/07/cluster-to-green-card.html
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http://www.lawyersindemand.com/Attorney-Type/Visa-and-Immigration-Attorney/index.html
Great Post Amardeep! I am just another candidate with Masters Degree and have been working in US for 4 years but looking at current wait times, we have finally decided to move to Canada. Nobody knows how long it is going to take for GC processing, I always wonder that USCIS in itself does not accountability or President itself has no knowledge on this issue. I am in my late twenties and die for starting my own business but due to my bondage with H1 B I cannot do that. Life really feels like an illegal immigrant, infact I have seen them in a better position of no worry and not paying taxes. I pay over 30 K in taxes every year and no clue on Green Card Processing. I have lived in Canada and personally I know it sucks as wages are no way comparable to US. US has given us everythign we hoped for except for freedom of work and GC – live free or die. I would rather move to another country and set my own rules then living like a prisoner.