Content of letter or petition to send to your Senator for supporting HR 3012

[manubhai]

If you don't like this, write your own.
If you write your own, DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT YOUR PAIN. US immigration policy will not change because "YOU" are in pain, because YOU cannot change your job, because YOUR wife cannot work, etc.
Write small paras.
Use numbered points... they may be the only thing they ever read.
Make the letter personable - a human wrote it to be read by another human.
Writing is only partially helpful. Making a 20 second call is a hundred times better. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't write.
Calling is only partially helpful. Meeting for 2 minutes is a hundred times better. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't call.
Other organizations and message boards have specific "action items". You should also do what you can to support their action items. We are all in this together.
Just because the bill passed the house doesn't mean it will become a law. Too many bills have come to die in the senate before. Real effort is still required to make any difference.


And if the above sounds like rocket science, then only remember one thing: Remaining anonymous and not contributing on message boards is perfectly OK. But not doing the little you can do to make a tiny difference for your own good is pathetic.

[manubhai]

Content prepared with help from imdeng, helpful_leo and Pedro Gonzales.

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I am writing to you to ask you for your support for H.R. 3012 - Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act.

Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness may be what one recognizes this beautiful country for, but "Fairness" is also an attribute that is deeply embedded in its ethos.

I am cognizant of how deeply contentious any immigration policy decision can be for elected officials. Years of partisanship and division over the issue have proven how difficult it is to resolve these issues. However, what you have today in front of you is a bill that puts aside all contentious aspects of immigration, and focuses purely on the singular aspect that every United States citizen agrees with - Attract the best and brightest in the world to its shores, just as it always has.

That said, H.R. 3012 does NOT bring a single new person in to United States. It only aims to make the "process" of employment based immigration fair for the best and brightest English speaking, educated, tax-paying, law abiding, experienced professionals who have previously entered United States legally after proving their worth. These are people who have done their best to pay their dues to call this country home, but at the same time, have been treated unfairly. H.R. 3012 is a technical fix that makes the process of employment based immigration more "American" because "Fairness" is the quintessential American way.

As you may already be aware, H.R. 3012 proposes to remove the arbitrarily prescribed limit of 7% per country on annual allotment of green cards - the root cause of the unfairness. Because of this limit, applicants from countries like India, China, Mexico, and Philippines are subjected to an inhumane wait of more than 10-12 years.

As I write to you, I also understand that United States' immigration policy decisions should not and cannot be made based purely on the sacrifice that a potential immigrant has to make. But at the same time, I also want to question how the existing, arbitrary, employment based immigration policy helps the United States' economy. If it doesn't help, it should be removed in order to make the lives of those professionals working hard to call US their home a little better.

I would like to bring your attention to the following list of points:
1. This bill does NOT increase the number of immigrants allowed in the United States.
2. This bill eliminates an archaic provision of the current employment based immigration law that discriminates the amount of time an employment based applicant needs to wait based on his country of birth.
3. This bill will have no impact on the diversity of the immigrant pool (much less the diversity of the population of United States) because it only impacts a small percentage of the total immigrant pool entering United States.
4. This bill is a product of patriotic minds on both sides of the aisle working together to produce small, beneficial results for the US economy. It has thus passed the House of Representatives with a 96% approval - a rare feat in today's times.

I request you to support H.R. 3012 with your honorable colleagues from both sides of the aisle.

Thank you.

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[manubhai]

Where can you post these letters?

Amongst other places...
OpenCongress: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s1857/
S. 1857 is HR 3012's companion bill in the Senate.

Petition2Congress started by imdeng: http://www.petition2congress.com/5665/support-fairness-high-skilled-immigrants-hr-3012/
If you wish, you can update the default content with your own text or the content above. Emails are free. But make sure you choose to send hard copies at a cost of $9 total.

Postal Mail... still works. Find the address of the senator - one paper, one envelope, one stamp. Trust me... you can do it.

[pakkpk]

http://www.petition2congress.com/5686/please-vote-yes-on-fairness-high-skilled-immigrants-act/

The above petition link already voted more than 22,000 votes. You can change the message content by copy and paste from the OP's content post.

[manubhai]

Addresses of Senators from the 112th Congress:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Prefer to begin with:

The Honorable (Name)
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator (Name)
...
...

More details here: http://www.senate.gov/reference/common/faq/How_to_contact_senators.htm

[eb2ODer]

Thanks for the immense effort.

Sent the letter.. 9 dollars well spent... every cent worth it! Hope more people send in and hope it works.

[randomax]

Apart from reaching out to your congressmen directly, I think we should all be sending out emails to friends/family making them aware of this bill. Content of email that I am thinking of sending. Feel free to suggest changes. I have taken most of the material from this thread.

It's a little disturbing that only 220 people have supported this bill on opencongress till now.


"Hi All - I don't usually send mass emails but feel this one is worthy of your time. I am writing to you to ask you for your support for H.R. 3012 - Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act. The highlights of this bill are as follows:

1. This bill does NOT increase the number of immigrants allowed in the United States.
2. This bill eliminates an archaic provision of the current employment based immigration law that discriminates the amount of time an employment based applicant needs to wait based on his country of birth.
3. This bill is a bipartisan bill and has passed the House of Representatives with a 96% approval - a rare feat in today's times.

It is currently stuck in the Senate because other provisions which actually increase the number of visas available for people from certain countries are being added to the bill. If you support this bill, I strongly urge you to write to your congressman/congresswoman requesting they put their weight behind it:

OpenCongress: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s1857/
HR 3012's companion bill in the Senate.

Please click on the link, and then click the "support" button that appears on the right side of your screen. Submit your address/contact information and then create a login. Note that an activation email will be sent to you and until you click on the link in the email, the letter WILL NOT BE SENT. This process should not take more than 5 minutes of your time.

Please forward this to anyone who you think would support this bill. Thanks for your time. "