A Wall Street Journal opinion piece points out that an infusion of innovators is even more needed in a recession. “Companies founded by immigrants include Yahoo. eBay and Google. Half of Silicon Valley start-ups were founded by immigrants, up from 25% a decade ago. Some 40% of patents in the US are awarded to immigrants. A recent study by the Kauffman Foundation found that immigrants are 50% likelier to start businesses than natives. Immigrant-founded technology firms employ 450,000 workers in the US.

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) today introduced the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act – narrowly-tailored bipartisan legislation that would reform the H-1B and L-1 guest-worker programs to prevent abuse and fraud and to protect American workers.
“The H-1B visa program should complement the U.S. workforce, not replace it,” Durbin said.  “Congress created the H-1B visa program so an employer could hire a foreign guest-worker when a qualified American worker could not be found. However, the H-1B visa program is plagued with fraud and abuse and is now a vehicle for outsourcing that deprives qualified American workers of their jobs.  Our bill will put a stop to the outsourcing of American jobs and discrimination against American workers.”

The Durbin-Grassley bill would mend the H-1B visa program, not end it, making reasonable reforms while not reducing the number of H-1B visas that are available.  Congress intended H-1B visas to benefit the American economy by allowing U.S. employers to import high-skilled and specialized guest-workers when no qualified American workers are available.  While initially successful, loopholes in the program have allowed foreign guest-workers to displace qualified American workers.

Some claim that the H-1B program helps to create American jobs, but it is currently being used by some companies to outsource American jobs to foreign countries.  Under current law, an outsourcing company can use American workers to train H-1B guest-workers, fire the American workers and outsource the H-1B workers to a foreign country where they will do the same job for a much lower wage.  In fact, Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has referred to the H-1B as “the outsourcing visa.”

For more information on the H-1B legislation reform:
Read this story from the Sen. Durbin website

Mexico City, April 25, 2009 – Mexico and the United States are cooperating closely together as Mexico works to contain the current outbreak of H1N1 influenza. At the invitation of the Mexican government, a team of experts from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has arrived in Mexico to work with their counterparts to identify and limit the outbreak of H1N1 influenza. The United States has imposed no additional constraints or limitations on travel between the United States and Mexico. Travelers are encouraged to comply with suggestions by Mexican public health officials and to practice good health and sanitation.

In accordance with measures announced by the City of Mexico to limit the congregation of large crowds, the Embassy in Mexico City has decided to suspend processing of the approximately 5100 non-immigrant visa appointments scheduled Monday, April 27 through Wednesday, April 29.

For more information on the Embassy taking precautionary measures:
Read this press release from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico

Remade in America: This is one segment in a series about the newest immigrants and their impact on American institutions

The question comes from one of dozens of engineers around a crowded conference table at Google. They have gathered to discus how to bujild easy-to-use maps that could turn hundreds of millions of mobile phones into digital Sherpas – guiding travelers to businesses, restaurants and landmarks

His plane gets in at 9:30,” the group’s manager responds. Google is based here in Silicon Valley. But Sanjay G. Mavinkurve, one of the key engineers on a map project, is not. His wife doesn’t have a visa, so he lives in Canada.

For more: http://projects.nytimes.com/immigration/

There is a new, potential plan in the works for comprehensive immigration reform that could involve a major change in strategy. In a recent report in the LA Times, the CIR bill would look very similar to prior years, but a new independent commission would be created to assess employment-based visa numbers.

The new commission would assess labor and industry data to decide how many foreign workers should be allowed into the country. The system would replace a maze of special temporary worker visas that are granted each year to high-tech specialists, agriculture workers and other foreigners brought into the U.S. by foreign and domestic firms, according to the article.

This potential proposal could cause a disruption among Republicans like John McCain to drop their support for CIR.

For more information on this article:
Read this story from the LA Times

While acknowledging that the recession makes the political battle more difficult, President Obama plans to begin addressing the country’s immigration system this year, including looking for a path for illegal immigrants to become legal, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

While acknowledging that the recession makes the political battle more difficult, President Obama plans to begin addressing the country’s immigration system this year, including looking for a path for illegal immigrants to become legal, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

For more information on Obama to push immigration bill as a key priority:
Read this story from the NYT

WASHINGTON – April 8, 2009, USCIS announced it continues to accept H-1B nonimmigrant visa petitions subject to the fiscal year 2010 (FY 2010) cap. USCIS will continue to monitor the number of H-1B petitions received for both the 65,000 regular cap and the 20,000 U.S. master’s degree or higher educational exemption cap.

Should USCIS receive the necessary number of petitions to meet the respective caps, it will issue an update to advise the public that, as of a certain date (the “final receipt date”), the respective FY 2010 H-1B caps have been met. The final receipt date will be based on the date USCIS physically receives the petition, not the date that the petition is postmarked. The date or dates USCIS informs the public that the respective caps have been reached may differ from the actual final receipt date.

For more information on this story:
Read this article from USCIS.gov

There are surprising (and positive) developments to report on CIR. The House appears to be getting its act together on immigration, Immigration Daily has learned that Rep. Conyers and Rep. Lofgren have made significant progress in writing a massive CIR bill. Furthermore, The Hill reports that “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who did not bring the issue up last Congress, appears to be throwing more support behind the initiative this time.” A major immigration bill, backed by the full Democratic leadership of the House is likely to be ready for hearings and markup in a couple of months. This development is particularly heartening in that positive signs from the House were not visible earlier this year.

For more information on this story:
Read this link from ILW.com

8.1. Eligibility
8.1.1. Who is eligible for the STEM extension?

F-1 students who completed a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in a STEM field and are currently engaged in post-completion OPT may apply for the STEM extension if they have a job or job offer from an E-Verify employer.
8.1.2. Is the extension available to students who completed their post-completion OPT prior to April 8, 2008?

No. The eligibility is not retroactive.
8.1.3. How does a student or DSO know which degrees are designated as STEM degrees?

Read more about the 17 month extension here

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a reminder that the revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification (Rev. 02/02/09), goes into effect today for all U.S. employers. The revision date is printed on the lower right-hand corner of the form.

The interim final rule, published Dec.17, 2008 in the Federal Register, revised the list of documents acceptable for the Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) process. Employers may no longer use previous versions of the Form I-9.

The revised list improves the security and effectiveness of the Form I-9 process. The list specifies that expired documents are no longer acceptable forms of identification or employment authorization. Allowing for expired documents makes it more difficult for employers to verify an employee’s identity and employment authorization and compromises the Form I-9 process.

Read more information on the new I-9 Form here