Microsoft skips the US, opens development center in Canada as a result of US immigration limitations
Microsoft is skipping the US and opening a development center in Vancouver, Canada as a result of increasingly illogical and outdated US immigration laws.
An excerpt from the Infoweek article:
“If Microsoft, or IBM or any other tech giant for that matter, can’t bring workers onto its home turf, it will simply put them in some other more immigration-friendly country. A broadband connection is usually all that’s needed to facilitate communication. Or, in the case of Microsoft’s Vancouver center, an eight-lane highway.
The question Congress now needs to consider is this: Do visa limits do more harm than good to the U.S. economy?…Wouldn’t it be better for Washington state if the workers that Microsoft plans to place in Canada because of “immigration issues” were employed locally, paying state taxes and spending in local shops?
It appears that the biggest beneficiary of the Senate’s failure to pass an immigration bill may be Canada. Is that really what Congress intended?”
BREAKING NEWS – AILA Reports State Department plans to issue a revised Visa Bulletin for July 2007
VIA AILA NATIONAL
06/29/2007
We are hearing from multiple sources that, on Monday or Tuesday of
next week, State Department plans to issue a revised Visa Bulletin for
July 2007. This revised Bulletin would retrogress some or all of the
employment-based categories, very likely to the point of unavailable.
Reports from AILA members
about unusual levels and types of activities by USCIS indicate a
particular push to adjudicate employment-based adjustments currently in
the pipeline so as to exhaust visa numbers for fiscal year 2007.
This follows the actions of USCIS in June, when it began rejecting
EB-3 “Other Worker” adjustment applications even though the Visa
Bulletin showed an October 2001 cut-off date, on the basis that the
“Other Worker” numbers for the year had been exhausted.
USCIS Announces Temporary Suspension of Premium Processing Service for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker
VIA USCIS
06/27/2007
WASHINGTON – Effective July 2, 2007, USCIS is announcing the temporary suspension of Premium
Processing Service for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, in accordance with 8 CFR
103.2(f)(2). USCIS anticipates a substantial increase in the number of petitioning employers that will file
Form I-140 petitions requesting Premium Processing Service as of July 2, 2007. This is due to pent up
demand for preference visa categories for which visas will become available according to the Department
of State July 2007 Visa Bulletin. The volume of Form I-140 petitions filed that request Premium Process
Service is expected to exceed USCIS’ capacity to provide the Premium Process Service according to the
Premium Process Service program guidelines.
Premium Processing Service guarantees that within 15 calendar days of receipt of a petition, USCIS will
issue either an approval notice, a notice of intent to deny, a request for evidence or open an investigation
for fraud or misrepresentation.
This suspension will last for 30 days beginning on July 2, 2007 and ending on August 1, 2007. During this
timeframe, USCIS will determine whether it is able to process these cases within 15 calendar days of
receipt. If so, Premium Processing Service will once again be made available for Form I-140 petitions.
Immigration bill best chance to boost H-1B visas
Via BizJournals
Kent Hoover Washington Bureau Chief
Despite the Senate’s failure to act on sweeping immigration legislation, the technology industry still sees comprehensive reform as the best way to get more H-1B visas for foreign engineers and computer programmers, and to reduce the backlog for green cards.
Negotiations were under way to address these issues when the Senate — at least temporarily — dropped consideration of its immigration bill because of disagreements over how many amendments should be considered.
“We were actually heartened by the progress made,” said James Ratchford, a spokesman for the Information Technology Industry Council. “We’re more confident now it would be part of a comprehensive bill.”
Demand for H-1B visas, which allow highly skilled foreigners to work in the United States for six years, dramatically exceeds supply. The federal government received 150,000 petitions for fiscal 2008’s allotment of 65,000 H-1B visas on the first day it accepted applications.
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Obtaining proof of 365 Day + Pending Labor Certification to utilize 7th Year H-1B Extensions & Backlog Information
Via DOL
7th year + H-1B Visa Extensions
DOL has worked with CIS to set up a new system in the Backlog Elimination Centers to assist individuals who have submitted an application for permanent labor certification prior to March 28, 2005 and need proof of the submission to apply for an extension of an H-1B visa.
Individuals should send an e-mail to the appropriate Backlog Center explaining the need for the H-1B extension and requesting verification that their application is pending at the Center. The email addresses are h1b7yr@dal.dflc.us for the Dallas Center and h1b7yr@phi.dflc.us for the Philadelphia Center. Include in this request all pertinent information (employer name and address, alien name and address, date of filing, state where filed, case number, if known).
The Backlog Center will respond to the individual with verification that the application has been pending for 365 days.
Backlogged Application Receipt Dates
The document found at the link below was created to help employers who have applied for Permanent Foreign Labor Certification prior to March 28, 2005 find out when their applications arrived at a backlog processing center. In order to learn when a specific case was received by a backlog center, first locate the state where the Permanent Foreign Labor Certification application was submitted. Then, in the next column, marked Filing Date Range, find the dates between which the application’s filing (or priority) date falls. To the right of this column is the Date Received column, which shows the exact date that applications within a specific priority date range arrived at the backlog center. The last column, entitled Backlog Center, shows what center received that particular shipment.
Backlogged Application Receipt Dates
Shipping Schedule:
Permanent case applications currently located at the SWAs and Regional Offices are being shipped to the Backlog Processing Centers in three phases based on local office receipt date.
| Phase | Local Office Receipt Date | Date Due to Center |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prior to January 2003 | Completed On 12-31-04 |
| 2 | 2003 to 2004 | No Later Than 03-31-05 |
| 3 | 2005 | No Later Than 04-22-05 |
No link between job loss and H-1B visa: Nasscom
Via The Hindu
NEW DELHI: The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has said that any reduction in the number of H-1B visas to Indian IT firms will only reduce the competitiveness of the IT industry in the US. It has also refuted claims that there were any direct linkages between the visa programme and job loss in the U.S.
In its letter to the two US Senators — Chuck Grassley and Richard Durbin — written on behalf of the nine Indian IT companies which were asked by the Senators to furnish details about their H-1B visa programmes, Nasscom has said that the contributions made by H-1B visa holders to innovation and entrepreneurship in the U.S. has resulted in job creation on a large scale.
Quoting a 2006 survey conducted by “Money Magazine”, the association has stated that there was no linkage between layoffs and the H-1 B visa, besides reiterating that the number of H-1B visas was currently very limited.
The IT trade body has also expressed concern over the specific clause in the US Immigration Bill, introduced by the two Senators, that “prohibits companies from hiring H-1B employees if they employ more than 50 people and more than 50 per cent of their employees are H-1B visa holders”. Scaling down of the H-1B visa is being seen as a “protectionist measure” on the part of the American lawmakers, the letter added.
Stressing that H-1B visas are beneficial for the U.S. as well as Indian companies, and also to the U.S. economy, Nasscom has said many U.S. industry leaders have repeatedly stressed the need to raise the H-1B visa cap, which was reduced from 1.95 lakh to 65,000 two years ago.
H-1B visa holders pay taxes and social security. Additionally, in the past two years, to combat potential fraud in H-1B and L-1 visas, companies have paid more than $300 million in government-imposed fees to fund a U.S. State Department effort.
The association has not only offered its help and cooperation while dealing with the visa fraud issue but has also supported the Senators’ views that any fraudulent activity should be dealt with in the strictest possible manner. It has offered to meet and discuss the issue with the Senators.
It may be recalled that recently the two senators had asked nine Indian companies — Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Satyam Computer Services, Patni Computer Systems, Larsen & Toubro Infotech, i-flex solutions, Tech Mahindra Americas and MphasiS — to give details about their H-1B visa programmes.
Debate Rages over Employment Visa Program
Via BusinessJournalism.org
H-1B discussion by Debjani Chakravarty
Indian techies in US, UK worried
Via The Economic Times
NEW DELHI: In the past, the ‘H factor’ has largely driven the immigrant dreams of a large number of Indian techies. The H-1B visa that allows US companies and universities to employ skilled foreigners for speciality occupations and UK’s highly skilled migrant programme (HSMP) scheme that allowed skilled and qualified foreigners to move to UK without jobs or sponsors, have been the twin tracks for techies to enter the US and the UK.
However, today, both these programmes are under a cloud and that’s bad news for both Indian professionals and Indian companies. So even as the new US immigration bill gathers momentum, things seem to be getting tougher for H-1B visa holders, in whom US employers have invested heavily in training and talent management, in applying for green cards.
And the situation isn’t much better for thousands of Indians who went to the UK under the HSMP. This follows UK’s immigration minister Liam Byrne practically ruling out any softening of his government’s stand on the retrospective application of HSMP changes announced in November 2006.
United States India Political Action Committee, an organisation representing over 50,000 members of the Indian-American community and businesses owners, has been proactively highlighting the problems faced by H-1B holders and urging US law makers to look into these issues through the new legislation.
“We are very concerned over the H-1B visa programme and the failure of the US authorities to address the need for hiking the quota from the current 65,000. It is getting a lot harder for H-1B visa holders to transit to green cards, which is also a cause for worry. The H-1B visa holders are highly skilled individuals who gain further training in their jobs in the US.
However, the queue for green cards is only getting longer and there’s no assurance to these talented individuals on whether they will get a green card or not after five to six years. Such ambiguities in the H-1B programme hits the US technology sector very hard,” USINPAC chairman Sanjay Puri told ET.
The organisation has met the chairman of the House judiciary committee, Congressman John Conyers, and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, chairman of the House judiciary committee’s subcommittee on immigration, citizenship and international law.
In the UK, the HSMP Forum, an organisation addressing the problems faced by foreigners who moved to the UK under HSMP and may now be forced to leave, is continuing its struggle to attain the removal of retrospective changes.
“Our forum will continue to strive to attain removal of the retrospective changes and we hope that UK’s new prime minister and home secretary would look into the matter and the Indian government will continue to urge the British government to stop such unfair treatment of Indian HSMP holders,” Amit Kapadia, director and co-ordinator of the HSMP Forum told ET.
The U.S. Immigration Law Blog by Ashwin Sharma 
Open the floodgates to IT immigration
Infoworld Commentary
“Forget about H-1B. What we need is fast-track citizenship for every developer who wants to work in the United States”