April 25, 2006

Don't Forget About the Fix We Need For the H-1B

In recent weeks, there has been an enormous amount of attention given to proposed immigration legislation, mainly dealing with the creation of a guest worker program and the legalization of 11 million undocumented aliens in the United States. While the H-1B visa has not been in the forefront of media coverage and debate, it is still an important issue that we must focus on. The USCIS recently announced a count on the visas used towards this years quota of 65,000 and most onlookers seem confident the cap will be hit earlier than last years date of August 10th.

The IT industry and industry groups such as the Information Technological Industry Council whose members include big tech firms such as IBM, Cisco and Apple have found an ally in President Bush, who urged Congress to be “realistic and reasonable and raise the cap.” Advocacy groups and lobbyists are working with lawmakers currently to raise the cap to aid various American industries desperately in need of foreign workers. The Chairman’s Mark as drafted, proposes raising the H-1B cap to 115,000 from 65,000 but. While, the cap increase initially was endorsed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, it failed to win bipartisan support in a House panel and is one of the issues that will be debated once the Senate reconvenes after their Easter break. It expected that last minute deal could still be reached on increasing the H-1B visa cap, especially when the Senate and House bills have to reconciled.

Greenberg Traurig's business immigration practice is working with industry groups on behalf of our clients in an effort to find a workable solution which includes increases in the H-1b cap as well as a guest worker program. Shareholder Laura Reiff co-chairs the Essential Workers Immigration Coalition (EWIC), and is continuing to work directly with members of the Senate and White House to achieve significant immigration reforms that will benefit U.S. businesses.