Immigration Visa Lawyer Blog

People like to speculate. So do I. But I believe my speculation is an educated one. When it comes to increasing the H-1B cap, regrettably I do not foresee this in the near future. I read recently several news sources which predict we will see an increase in the H-1B cap early in an Obama administration. One example is an article in Computerworld entitled Why Obama may back an H-1B increase even in a recession.
I did a search on Obama and H-1B and could not find information that would give me confidence Obama will support an increase in the H-1B cap early in his administration. I do believe, however, that Obama will support an increase once the economy shows signs of recovery.

The issue of job loss was one of the hot topics addressed by Obama when he traveled through several key cities such as Columbus, and Cleveland in the battleground state of Ohio. The current economical/political condition and the various statements made by the President elect supports this view.

At best, Obama is neutral on this issue because he does not believe the H-1B cap increase will result in a positive impact on the bigger problems we are facing in the short term. Obama's top priorities are the economy, jobs and national security. His priority is to create jobs for American workers, not for foreign workers, reversing the outsourcing trend. He also places priority on bringing about a comprehensive immigration reform as a component of national security concern. Unfortunately a general increase in the H-1B cap now does not directly advance or fit in any of his challenges. An H-1B cap increase at the present time may not even be reconcilable with bringing jobs home and reducing the escalating unemployment rate.

A more likely scenario is that Obama will play a wait and see role. There is some good news in my prediction to the high tech industry. Obama appears to attach high priority on solidifying our world dominance in innovation and engineering advancement. If Obama moves towards supporting an H-1B Cap increase early, we should anticipate it to be tailored to bringing foreign nationals that are highly skilled in engineering and other similar technological related fields.

The H-1B reform debate is on again. Most believe that the H-1B visa program needs reform. Some lawmakers in Washington, DC are promising to introduce legislation to address this issue. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a report concluding that incidence of fraud in H-1B petitions are at an unacceptable rate of 13% and technical violations reaching 7.3%. Sen. Chuck Grassley has publicly released a statement reiterating his commitment to tighten H-1B and L visa program enforcement referencing his proposed H-1B VISA REFORM BILL TO PROTECT AMERICAN WORKERS introduced last year.

This debate will begin at a time of national economical crisis where 10.1 million Americans are currently unemployed according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor. Some states and cities, such as Detroit, Michigan and Columbus & Cleveland in Ohio, have not seen such high unemployment rates in years. The timing couldn't be worse for such an important debate to be truly balanced and helpful. The fear of rising unemployment rate may trump the voice of reason in assuring that America has access to talent unavailable in the US to remain competitive in the world. Some raise the question as to whether USCIS can fully by trusted to issue a report regarding the H-1B program practices when they also have to justify collecting millions of dollars in fraud fees. Should this job be given to an outside agency not profiting from collecting fraud fee? Does USCIS feel pressured to find fraud in the program now that they are collecting a $500.00 fraud fee on each H-1B petition?

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