Visas Visas Visas... so many choices and none to be had

One point that the anti-immigration folks like to harp on is that they feel immigrants should just follow the law. If the mexican ag worker, or the mexican dry-waller, or the honduran mason wants to work in the U.S., the should follow the legal process to get a proper visa. Anything less is criminal.

The only problem is.... there is no legal process for them to get a visa.

So I am going to elaborate upon just what our visa process is. I contend that most americans have no effin clue how the system works. If they did they might change their viewpoint (which polling suggests is soundly anti-immigrant). Our immigration laws are immensely complex, so I won't touch on every visa available, just the ones most commonly used.


I will say that the more complex, the more difficult you make the system, the more likely you will have people looking for ways to get around it. It is like a traffic jam. When traffic backs up you start looking for alternate routes. Sometimes those routes involve cutting across the grass. Don't laugh, I have seen plenty of smartassed SUV drivers go off-roading to get by a traffic snarl. Breakin the LAW !

Our immigration services are and have been for years vastly understaffed and under funded. Under such conditions, whatever complexity might exist gets further complicated when you don't have the people to process the paperwork. What might ordinarily take a couple weeks might end up taking a couple years or a couple decades. Your poor and huddled masses are not going to wait on you.

There are two general classifications of visas, Immigrant visas and non-immigrant visas. Immigrant visas enable one to seek citizenship, non-immigrant ones send you packing eventually.

Non-Immigrant Visas

H1B

H1B visas are the most common non-immigrant visa sought and obtained. There is no path for citizenship. The visa allows for a company to hire someone for up to 6 years, with a renewal at 3 and 5 years. When six years is up, your employee has to go home. To get an H1B, requires corporate sponsorship. It can take six months and a couple $1000, not counting lawyer fees, to get the application processed. If the guy doesn't work out and you fire him before the 6 years is up, you have to pay the relocation costs to send him home.

Who can get an H1B? only educated employees in 'specialized' fields. ie computer programmers, engineers, doctors, etc.... not dry wallers, gardeners, or bean pickers. So for the typical illegal migrant, H1B is out of the question and not available.

Here is the real kicker... only 65,000 H1Bs are issued a year. That may include renewals. Those 65,000 are allocated to various industries and corporations. As of March (maybe sooner) a certain local company had already met its annual quota. I would presume the same is true for much of the industry. So even for skilled professionals, this is very hard to get. It is also frustrating to businesses who have difficulty finding native professionals. 65,000 in no way covers the needs of American corporations, let alone 12 million illegals.

H1-Bs do allow for immediate family to come over under an H-4 visa. The H-4 does not allow your kids or spouse to work.

L-1

L-1 is a non-immigrant visa that allows corporations to transfer existing staff from abroad to the U.S.. It is good for up to 7 years with renewals at 3 and 5 years. Generally this is for multi-nationals to shuffle people around inside the corporation. Move a manager here, a project leader there. I could not find any numerical limits on this visa but there may be some. I also suspect that this visa is for significant individuals inside a company and not joe worker.

B1 & B2

The B1/2 non-immigrant visa is geared for visiting businessmen, like marketers, sales reps, visiting executives, etc. It can also be used for short term collaborative projects. The visa is only good for 1 year and you have to prove you are heading home at the end of it, before you get the visa. This usually means producing a return plane ticket. This visa is not for your typical unskilled illegal migrant.

H2B

The H2B is the non-immigrant visa that is targeted towards the unskilled laborer. This could be the way a typical illegal migrant could get legal entry. But... for 12 million it is not. First a company has to get 'labor certified'. To be labor certified a company has to prove that there are no U.S. workers willing to do the job. This is a time consuming and EXPENSIVE process. For many companies operating on razor thin margins, to get labor certification is prohibitive. Even if you get certified there is NO guarantee you will benefit from it. Like the H1B, there is an annual cap of 65,000 a year. Not only that, they are chosen at random!!!

Once they are certified they can look for workers but... imagine telling a perspective worker, I might have a job for you if I win the lottery. So the worker then has to apply and maybe get approved... maybe. Is that worker going to wait for you? Would you wait on that employer? That is no way to run a business. To top it off, the visa is only good for up to 3 years, renewed anually. So... if you find a good laborer, you will lose him for sure in 3 years. Now tell me... when you look for a job, do you really look for one that has an uncertain future? Most people do not. People want security. So do migrants. Part of why they are migrating is because of insecurity.

H2B visas do allow for family to come with you under an H-4. The H-4 is a whole other process. So... you can't apply for the H-4 until you got the H2B, which in itself is a crap shoot. By the time the H-4 visa is processed you probably are near the end of your first year and have to deal with renewal, for both.... wtf... start counting the dollars and time.

It gets better... mm worse. Just because you get a visa does not mean your get admittance into the U.S.. The border guards have independent jurisdiction to approve or reject admittance. So.. if that under paid, over worked border guard is having a bad day. You and your company may be screwed.

The H2B is simply very unattractive to both migrants and employers. The cap of 65,000 a year would seem totally out of touch with reality, when 12 million are already here with more coming. The existing system simply does not allow for these 12 million to be legal.

What are the alternatives? Higher prices on goods or more jobs, more employers, more tax dollars relocating abroad.


Immigrant Visas (ie Green Cards)


None of the above visas allow for migrants to apply for citizenship. They are dead end visas in that regard. There are some complicated processes to convert one visa to another. Those processes are complicated, expensive, and not assured.

I know of one couple where a man married an Australian. She tried to convert her visa to a green card. Her application was denied. So despite their marriage (he is a citizen), she would have to depart the U.S. once her current visa was up. So they both moved to Australia where they were greeted with open arms. He got residency there, easily. Two skilled, educated people lost.

All green cards are good for 10 years. They can be renewed near the end of 10 years. After 5 years, you can apply for citizenship.

Green cards come in several flavors, four are the most important. You can get a green card by virtue of family, by employer sponsorship, by lottery, or by investment.

By Family

Green cards by family have no numerical limitations. If you are related to someone who is a citizen or a green card holder, two generations removed, you can apply for a green card too. As I said earlier, the immigration services are under staffed and under funded. It is with family green cards that this becomes painfully apparent. Different family members have different priorities. Some can take 3 months, like a newborn child. Some can take 20 years, like your 20 something brother. Just because you are family, in no way guarantees you will get a card (note the Aussie above).

Because the process is soo slow. It is quite possible you might not see family members for many years. For many, this is unacceptable. So... people come illegally.


By Corporate Sponsorship

If a company really, really likes you, they can sponsor you in a green card application. Like the H1B and H2B visas, a company has to be labor certified. They have to prove there is no one out there willing to do the job. The applicant must have a job offer from the company. There is a numerical cap of 140,000 corporate green cards, a year. Applicants are given a priority based on their skill sets. The more skilled, the more educated you are, the better your chances. Theoretically it is possible for an unskilled laborer to get a green card this way but the system is soundly stacked against him. Unskilled laborers are at the bottom of the priority list. Once you do apply, it can still take years to process an application. The local meat packer is simply not going to sponsor this.

What typically happens is that an employer brings someone over on an H1B (or possibly another visa), if they like the guy, they begin the green card application process. If they don't like the guy, well... keep your bags nearby or look for another employer. That is what happens too. I have seen programmers change jobs because the learned there was no green card in their future.

For the typical illegal migrant, the green card is the ellusive holy grail, but for most it is out of reach. Enough so that we can conclude that there is effectively no path for them.


By Investment

If you are going to invest a million dollars into the American economy, you can have a green card too. This is how Rupert Murdoch got his card and later citizenship. There is a cap of 10,000 a year.

Look around, it is no accident that you see lots of family owned Chinese restaurants, Mexican restaurants, south Asian owned convenient marts etc.... Get funding to start a business here, you get your first green cards, then use the other visa processes to bring friends and family over.

Most countries have similar arrangements. Money can buy a lot of things...


By Lottery

A few years back, Congress created a green card lottery to add diversity to our migrant pool. There was criticism that we took too many Europeans, Canadians, Mexicans... etc and not enough folk from more distant corners. So every year, 55,000 lucky souls get drawn out of a big hat, earning a green card. To be entered you need to be a 'needed' skilled professional ( unskilled laborers need not bother) and hearken from some place no one has heard of. Mexican's don't qualify.



Add it up...


So... we allow for 130,000 semi-permanent non-immigrants and 205,000 plus family, immigrants a year. Few if any of these spots would cover the typical illegal migrant. For the typical illegal, there is NO LEGAL path to work in the U.S., let alone seek citizenship. For the typical employer of these immigrants and contrary to the naysayers the process is too expensive, too time consuming, too complicated. The benefits and risks of bringing in illegals far outweigh the legal process.

The H2B visa, which would be the most logical one for illegals to pursue is capped at 65,000 which when compared to 12 million is downright laughable. Add up all the red tape, the irrational conditions, and the other barriers and it is no wonder we have a 'problem' with illegal immigration.

Making it more difficult won't solve the problem.

We need to rationalize, simplify and expedite the process.