Worky work, busy bee!

I can't believe that it is March. This year is flying by. Work is extremely busy. For those of you not in the immigration business, this is the time of year that immigration firms prepare H-1B cap cases. Basically H-1B visas are work visas for foreign degreed individuals. There is a set amount handed out yearly. Well in the past few years the demand for the visas well surpasses the supply of visas. So on April 1st, the government will receive tens of thousands of petitions, so many that if you don't send your case in on that day, you probably won't have a chance at getting a visa. In fact they hold a lottery to determine which cases even get opened. So I've been preparing these types of cases at work, knowing quite possibly that they could be returned unprocessed. Worky work, busy bee.......that is definitely me.

On a political note, I hate hearing about how American jobs are going abroad. In my opinion having a cap on the number of H-1B visas contributes to companies sending divisions or setting up offices in foreign companies. If there are not enough Americans to fill these specific jobs, employers look abroad. I do enough of these cases that I believe that this is true. Many of my cases are for engineers and scientists. As a former science teacher, I have seen firsthand how this subject is considered more of an elective b/c it's not a highly tested subject for state funding. Reading, writing, and math are the biggies. Hey, guess what??? Science encompasses all three of those other subjects. Really our educational system does not encourage students in these area. Truly sad, b/c science is so interesting and can be such a fun and exciting subject. So, I do believe that we don't produce those types of workers in America and can completely understand why employers go abroad or even recruit foreign college students that are attending U.S. universities. Also these visas aren't cheap and the employer must pay the fees, that is if they can even get one of the coveted H-1B slots. Why would employers jump through so many hoops and pay the exorbitant fees if they could hire a U.S. worker? Again, the supply of good U.S. workers in particular science heavy fields is very low. In the end I can see how it would be cheaper to just set up shop somewhere else in the world, especially if you are in need of many workers. By allowing the foreign workers into the country, companies can continue to operate here and in fact the worker then spends it's money here, which in turn helps out the economy. By limiting the number of visas, I believe we are only hurting ourselves. The true solution to the H-1B cap is to pump up public science education and encourage and inspire young adults into these increasingly in demand fields that are only going to grow with technology. If America could produce enough workers in these areas, employers wouldn't have to look abroad, and then quite possibly I would be out of a job. Honestly don't see that happening any day soon.