put the link back into IV again :)
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put the link back into IV again :)
I just tried doing that but the suckers at immigrationvoice have banned the word "petition2congress" So there is no way you can post the correct link. So, I just asked users to search "Retain High-skilled Legal Immigrants in USA" in google.Quote:
Originally Posted by valuablehurdle
I don't understand why they wanna do that.
cbpds,
Your link does not work. Just to let you know.
but my post is just below urs and still visible though
But look carefully at your link. They have removed the word "petition2congress" word. So, if you click your link it does not take you anywhere.Quote:
Originally Posted by cbpds1
fixed the problem
Quote:
Originally Posted by imechanix
Thanks Q!Quote:
Originally Posted by qesehmk
Signed up and Sent 'PRINTED LETTERS' - $12 ($3 each for President/2 senators/1 representative) is definately worth and the least one could do on this regard.
This may or may not produce any results but I would be very content that I did something towards achieving my freedom (Green Card).
For some reason, your version has supressed lot of spaces between words. I have updated your version for that and made cosmetic changes.
********************
Dear Mr.President and Members of Congress,
We are legal immigrants living in U. S. A for many years, we are paying taxes and helping the economy grow. We would like to be part of the future growth of this country. But today we are held back because of unnatural and unreasonable processing delays in the legal immigration system. We feel we have been ignored for years by the congress and a president along with the general public and media. This country has its foundation based on the immigrants from all around the world, and the immigrants have helped keep foundation strong for decades. Unfortunately,this legal immigrant community is struggling to stay in this country. We suggest following steps to ease their pain as well as help the US economy by infusion of this skilled workforce that is ready to buy new houses and other capital assets which they defer to buy because of lack of certainty.
1) Remove the artificial cap on EB visas.
An artificial cap of 140,000 EB visas exists today. If an employer proves it that a certain skill is lacking in US economy and accordingly hires foreign person then it doesn’t make sense to subject that skill to an artificial quota.This skill hurts the employers ability to leverage the employee in a better way as the employee gains even more expertise, AND it hurts the employee by having them wait for upto 10-15 years and thus subjecting them to possible abuse bythe employer. We demand that this limit itself be removed in the interest of the employers and immigrants which will certainly provide a boost to theeconomy.
2) Remove the per country limits
Per country quotas of 7% exists today. It exacerbates the situation to applicantsfrom high-demand countries like India, China, Mexico and Philippines. Approximately just 10,000 visa numbers are available to India whereas it'sestimated that at least 44% of the applicants may be from India (based on USCIS statistics of around 44% of H1bs being granted to India every year). As spouse and children are counted, considering 4 members per family, on an average only2500 Indian applicants get Green cards in a year. As you can see the numbers are dismal. Meaning, if you are from India, China, Mexico or Philippines, you may have to wait 10 to 12 years or more to get your Green Card.
3) Remove Counting of Family Members towards EB visa Cap.
Today Family members (i.e. dependents of the primary EB applicant) are counted towards the EB cap. It makes the already paltry and artificial EB cap even smaller allowing approximately only 60K true skilled workers to enter the workforce every year.
4) Capture Wasted Visas from Prior Years
In the last 17 years 218.000 visas have been wasted because of processing delays between USCIS and DOS. If those visas were captured and used, the entireEB backlog today can be removed thus reducing a significant pain for employers and immigrants.
We acknowledge that you are aware of the problems but there has not been any action taken from the congress or President to help us. Above are few suggestions from us, and we request you consider directing congress to act on them as soon as possible so that we can contribute even better to the growth and prosperity of this country.
Thank you
*******************
Thanks SK. I did a sloppy job to be honest! Thanks for fixing it. Jack ... if you can still update ... take SK's version.Quote:
Originally Posted by skpanda
Sent emails and printed 3 letters and sent to Capitol Hill
Spending $9-12 is not going to hurt anyone financially.
I believe everyone who is stuck in this GC mess should sign it and send the letters.
Jackbrown
Nice intiative.Just finished signing the petition.I also forwaded an message copy to Rep (R) Darryl Issa of the 49th district in CA. Darryl Issa was the republican senator who tried to introduce an bill in the house to abolish the diversity lottery and allot those 50K visas to high tech workers. He might be sympathetic to the cause.Practically speaking things will only start moving if somebody sponsors an bill ,might help to get some sympathetic ears on our side.
If anybody else is interested this is his contact information.
http://issa.house.gov/index.php?opti...=597&Itemid=73
Also it would be good if this study link can be included in the text which shows 5 American jobs are created for every H1-B hired in this country.This was stated by the NASDAQ chief(Robert Griefield) in a senate hearing couple of months ago. This might provide some motivation for the politicians to spin this as good for the economy if more high tech guys are allowed to get green cards.
This is the actual text of the testimony from the senate.gov site.
http://judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/11-7...0Testimony.pdf
Page 2 of the text
"For example, the National Federation for American Policy says that for every H-1B worker requested, U.S. technology companies increase their employment by five
workers."
Page 3
"I hear from CEOs that the H-1B visa system is inadequate for today’s human capital marketplace and that the back log for green cards is a legitimate threat to their business’s ability to get the right talent. I hear that many great thinkers are not staying here or can’t stay here to pursue their life’s work. I hear that we have these wonderful factories - our colleges and universities - that produce brilliance, and we are depriving our own nation the fruits of this production"
qblogfan,
Thanks for raising us from our slumber. It's time to stand up and be counted (pun intended). I now agree that it's better to do something about this mess than keep waiting for things to happen.
I work in NYC, so sometimes i spend almost 9 dollars for lunch. I figured that if I cannot go on hunger strike like Anna Hazare, I can atleast give up my lunch money to sign this petition and send signed letters to the representatives.
I humbly request everyone on this board (EB2, EB3 et all) to sign this petition and make sure that you send physical letters using this site. In my opinion, a large volume of physical letters will have more impact than us just selecting the "Send email" option which may just end up in the spam folder.
Quote:
Originally Posted by qblogfan
Totally agree. $9 is nothing as compared to the upside in case something changes 'cause of this. Getting GC earlier by 1 year can result in $50-60k gain in income. Not to forget the stress free life. Besides that, I am startup guy, so, used to investing all that i earn in hope of a future jackpot.Quote:
Originally Posted by gchopeful123
for the people who don't want to spend $9, Please send an email and if you still want to send letters, just copy petition text print and sign and mail the letter thru USPS. it will cost you only 42 cents.
Updated...........
Thanks SKPANDA & Q
Quote:
Originally Posted by skpanda
gchopeful, thanks for your support!
Just now the total number pumped to 9200! Just today alone more than 3000 people signed this! It shows that many hard working EB immigrants are not happy about the long wait of GC. The number alone shows the real condition of our EB community. I checked some words left on that website and I found many people are unhappy about the inhumane treatment to the EB immigrants. Although we are not citizens of this country, we have to tell them we are not happy about this long wait!
Tomorrow morning it will reach 10000. I am confident our voice will be heard this time! At the same time, we are contacting different officials in DOS visa office and local congress people. We will make sure every politician hear our voice!
We are hard working tax payers and we deserve a visa recapture bill to solve this endless long wait of GC. We are people, let's stand up!
Quote:
Originally Posted by gchopeful123
Signed for emails as well signed to send physical letters..
- M
Quote:
Originally Posted by qblogfan
There is a typo in the letter - "In the last 17 years 218.000 visas have been......"
The number should read 218,000 (comma vs period), isn't it?
There is a never a dull moment in this forum, ha?
Signed for emails and physical letters
I just saw online that. H.R. 2161 bill has been moved to another subcommittee (education & workforce).
This bill is not perfect but it addresses lot of issues mentioned in the petition including visa recapture. It is not the perfect bill because last I heard it may reduce H1 to 3 years if it is passed. But expedite GC process. So h1 may not matter for most of us as long as we have GC.
everyone - Please keep an eye on that bill. I am hoping that it will make to House for votes soon and pass there even though its introduced by a democrat.
I hope this movement picks up, we need a lot more than 10,000 entries (so far ~9500).
qblogfan,
Is there a way to get this on the media using your Chinese contacts? I dont think immigration voice guys are going to help on this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by qblogfan
Quote:
Originally Posted by gchopeful123
Received REPLY from SENATOR
Thank you for contacting me to express your support for changes in the immigration system. Your opinion is very important to me, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to you about this critical issue.
You will be pleased to know that I recently introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill, which specifically addresses a number of your proposed changes. Among other proposals, this legislation includes the recapture provision which provides that unused visa numbers in a given year will "roll over" to the next fiscal year, and it exempts immediate relatives from the cap on the number of immigrant visas. It also reclassifies the spouse and dependent children of legal permanent residents to the "immediate relative" category. Furthermore, it increases the immigration limits per country for family-based immigration from 7 to 15 percent of total admissions and eliminates the employment-based caps.
I believe we can create reform in a safe, orderly, and legal process that preserves the promise of America for all. It can create a pathway towards citizenship, make the process for receiving green cards more efficient, and create employment systems that are both business and family friendly.
I have continuously worked with my colleagues to create and pass legislation that would enhance border security, while also providing a legitimate way for the estimated 12 million undocumented workers to come out of the shadows and earn United States citizenship. These undocumented workers should pass a series of strict and critical benchmarks, such as paying fines, learning English, and waiting at the back of the citizenship line behind those who have pursued legal means of attaining citizenship.
I believe this legislation provides concrete proposals which we can build upon. We must persistently advocate for the enactment of comprehensive immigration reform since it is the ultimate solution to our nation's broken immigration system. In addition to working for comprehensive immigration reform, I will look for opportunities to pursue independent reforms that would help businesses and families during this Congress.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance. I invite you to visit my website (http://menendez.senate.gov) to learn more about how I am standing up for New Jersey families in the United States Senate.
Great Sunil. Good to see a positive impact of our actions - howsoever small.
Quote:
Originally Posted by indiasunil
Push it hard for more emails to senators & president. Use all the best ways & try to post this in all other forums also.. I am doing my best to move this friends & colleagues.
Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by qesehmk
From immigration-law.com
"9/09/2011: Rep. Zoe Lofgren's Bill H.R. 2161 'IDEA ACT of 2011' Moving Aheard in the House 09/08/2011
IDEA stands for 'Immigration Driving Entrepreneurship in America.' This bill literally represents "comprehensive" employment-based immigration system reform legislation to attract and retain foreign brains and to attract small foreign enterpreneurs to boost creation of employment by removing hurdles to application for permanent residence as seen in the following titles and sections of the bill:
TITLE I--ATTRACTING AND RETAINING INNOVATORS AND JOB CREATORS
SEC. 101. U.S. GRADUATES IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS.
SEC. 102. ENTREPRENEURS WHO ESTABLISH BUSINESSES AND CREATE JOBS IN THE UNITED STATES.
SEC. 103. ELIMINATING GREEN CARD BACKLOGS.
SEC. 104. IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURS AND INNOVATORS PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES.
TITLE II--INVESTING IN THE NEXT GENERATION OF INNOVATORS AND JOB CREATORS
SEC. 201. INVESTING IN STEM EDUCATION FOR U.S. STUDENTS.
SEC. 202. U.S. STEM EDUCATION AND TRAINING ACCOUNT.
SEC. 203. ACCESS TO STUDENT VISAS FOR IMMIGRANT STUDENTS PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES.
TITLE III--REDUCING ADMINISTRATIVE HURDLES TO FOSTER INNOVATION AND JOB CREATION
SEC. 301. STREAMLINING LABOR CERTIFICATIONS.
SEC. 302. STREAMLINING PETITIONS FOR ESTABLISHED EMPLOYERS.
SEC. 303. PREMIUM PROCESSING.
TITLE IV--PROTECTING AMERICAN WORKERS
SEC. 401. STRENGTHENING THE PREVAILING WAGE SYSTEM TO PROTECT AMERICAN WORKERS.
SEC. 402. REFORMING THE H-1B VISA PROGRAM TO PROTECT AMERICAN WORKERS.
SEC. 403. REFORMING THE L VISA PROGRAM TO PROTECT AMERICAN WORKERS.
TITLE V--PROMOTING INVESTMENT IN THE AMERICAN ECONOMY
SEC. 501. EB-5 EMPLOYMENT CREATION INVESTOR PROGRAM.
SEC. 502. CONCURRENT FILING; ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS.
SEC. 503. FEES; PREMIUM PROCESSING.
This bill was initially introduced in the House on June 14, 2011, nd referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Yesterday, the bill was further referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education and the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. This bill contains all juicy provisions for the employment-based immigration reform. "
I appreciate the enthusiasm for petition-to-congress and I hope people will carry it over to support the above bill, but most people are not aware of the legislative process and can't understand that we need to get behind a bill. Petitions will not result in a bill. Please support the above bill. Contact your local congressperson and demand that they support this bill. This is our best chance and probably the only one!
BTW, I am back in the US without any probs whatsoever at POE. Very smooth!
I have been following the Blog for the last couple of months...terrific, surprises me as to how folks with full time jobs are able to dedicate so much time...Great work though! esp. the Fab 4...Q, Veni, Spec and Teddy...
I did sign this petition couple of weeks back and recieved responses from 2 senators: Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez.
This is part of Senator Robert's response "You will be pleased to know that I recently introduce d a comprehensive immigration reform bill, which specifically addresses a number of your proposed changes . Among other proposals , this legislation includes the recapture provision which provides that unused visa numbers in a given year will "roll over" to the next fiscal year , and it exempts immediate relatives from the cap on the number of immigrant visas. It also reclassifies the spouse and dependent children of legal permanent residents to the "immediate relative" category. Furthermore, it increases the immigration limits per country for family-based immigration from 7 to 15 percent of total admissions and eliminates the employment-based caps."
There have been many proposals on the table but without enough steam....Hopefully, this forum will help build that momentum in terms of numbers, so that the Government atleast takes a note of the issue...
Thanks
Tom Etukuri
I completely agree with kd2008. We need to stand behind a bill which can pass through the legislative process. If you want to support this bill please find the link below. You can vote on this bill (top right corner) and support the bill as well. The website is maintained by non-profit organization, which is non-partisan and legitimate.Quote:
Originally Posted by kd2008
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h2161/show
Thanks,
P.S: BTW, I'm disappointed to see the response of some senators related to petition2congress mentioning about comprehensive immigration reform bill (CIRB). CIRB does not have a chance to get passed! It is just a political game to attract Latino votes. We need a separate bill for legal immigrants like HR2161 to get passed.
Is there going to be a EB2 Predictions.... - 2012 thread separate from this one? I'll need to change my bookmarks :)
Signed afor emails and physical letters
Yes. We will switch to 2012 thread pretty soon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vizcard
Just sent the emails as well as printed letters. I request other readers to also spend the $9-$12 and send a printed letter - thousands of letters have a lot more impact than easily ignorable emails. I edited the letter a bit - my version is below:
Dear Mr. President and Members of Congress,
We are legal immigrants living in USA for many years, we are paying taxes and helping the economy grow. We would like to be part of the future growth of this country. But today we are held back because of unnatural and unreasonable processing delays in the legal immigration system. We feel we have been ignored for years by the congress and the president along with the general public and media. This country has its foundation based on the immigrants from all around the world, and the immigrants have helped keep the foundation strong for decades. Unfortunately, this legal immigrant community is struggling to stay in this country. We suggest following steps to ease their pain as well as help the US economy by infusion of this skilled workforce that is ready to buy new houses, start businesses and contribute to the economy.
1) Remove the artificial cap on Employment Based (EB) Green Cards.
An artificial cap of 140,000 EB visas exists today. If an employer proves that a certain skill is lacking in US economy and accordingly hires a suitable foreign person then it doesn’t make sense to subject that skill to an artificial quota. This constraint is hurting the employers who wish to get the best science and technology talent from around the world to support innovation within the US. Our legal immigration policy should be oriented towards getting the best human capital to help our economy, but because of this artificial cap, much of the legal immigration is wasted on family based green cards and diversity lottery visas that add little to the economy.
2) Remove the per country limits
Per country quotas of 7% exists today. It is ridiculous to think that we are willing to accept only as many legal immigrants from India and China as from say Fiji and Panama. Because of this artificial limit, many legal immigrants from India, China, Mexico and Philippines are subjected to inhumane wait of more than 10-12 years for a visa. More than 100,000 students from India and China graduate from US universities every year with advanced degrees - and there are only about 20,000 visas available to absorb them in the US economy. We are effectively forcing this well educated workforce to go back to India and China and use their excellent US based education to compete against the US. In fact, as spouse and children are also counted in the visa limit, considering 4 members per family, on an average only 2500 Indian applicants get Green cards in a year.
3) Remove Counting of Family Members towards EB visa Cap.
Today Family members (i.e. dependents of the primary EB applicant) are counted towards the EB cap. It makes the already paltry and artificial EB cap even smaller allowing approximately only 60,000 true skilled workers to enter the workforce every year.
4) Capture Wasted Visas from Prior Years
In the last 17 years 218,000 EB visas have been wasted because of processing delays between USCIS and DOS. If those visas were re-captured and used, the decades of waiting that legal immigrants are forced to endure can be removed thus reducing a significant pain for employers and immigrants.
We acknowledge that you are aware of the problems but there has not been any action taken from the congress or the President to help the productive, tax paying and patriotic legal immigrants community. We are here because we believe in America and the American Dream. We are being held back by the archaic and counter-productive legal immigration regulations. Above are few suggestions from us, and we request you consider legislation action on the above so that we can contribute even better to the growth and prosperity of this country.
Thank you
Excellent edits imdeng! I would only advise to change the word ridiculous to "unjust and unwise".
Quote:
Originally Posted by imdeng
Justed signed the petition and sent letters too.
It seems VB will not be out today.
Ok ... the letter is good but we are distracting the reader by adding stuff that doesnt help us.
For example:
Increase 7% quota limit for India & China - This fight is for GC and not H-1B. It doesn't matter what the quota is of the total number of visas per year remains the same. In any case the extra unused visas will be 'spilled over' sooner or later. So i think equal quotas by country is fair. If we want to increase something, it is the total visa number.
Secondly, removing family/dependents from visa allocation will never happen, because for US, it doesn't matter if they are working or not, it matters that they are immigrating. Be careful what you wish for. If we take our family from visa quotas, USCIS/DOS might put family in family visa quota which is an extremely long line. So you will have you green card quick, but your wife and kids will have theirs after 2-3- years and wont be able to join you.
Finally, our focus should only be on visa recapture cause that is right and fair and solves all our problems.
Thanks,
Please feel free to comment
Just signed and sent letters too. Nothing wrong in trying.
Idea is not to increase per country quota - but remove it altogether. EB immigration is about economic need - country of origin should not play a part in it. As far as ensuring diversity is concerned - there already is a diversity lottery.
Quote:
Originally Posted by casantino
I understand. However, we dont want to get into the politics of this. It is their country, their ideals and their economic needs. They want to show the world that they give equal weight to all countries. It is more politics than fairness. They will only learn when people start leaving or companies start moving out. It is easy to challenge and change an error/mistake (visa recapture) than challenge and change their ideals and needs (portraying diversity). We will never get them to remove the quota limits and they will reject the letter just by reading the first part.
Quote:
Originally Posted by imdeng
Sure it is their country. But it is fair for us to try to influence and change their thinking based on rational arguments that benefit both sides. e.g. a simple thought here - if there is an employer here who wants to hire a foreign person where the skill is not locally available;what sense it makes to subject that to any quota whatsoever? It's stupid to say the least. Honestly if you think about it that would be one way to make education less expensive in US and have the population value education more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by casantino
really? yeah probably not because of this silly petition thingy..but otherwise we will see :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by casantino
Thank you for your support! I will ask NIU folks to get some media exposure. I am sure they are working on this. I heard they were trying to put an ad on Washington Post and NY Times. I will ask them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gchopeful123
Yes, I agree. Although we are not citizens of this country, we have the right to speak out. We are not happy about this long waiting and we need to let them know. That's the whole purpose of doing petition. Otherwise they will never know we are unhappy. It's similar with working in a company. If you are unhappy about your salary, you need to let the boss know, otherwise they think you are happy about the low salary.
They set the 7% limit to prevent a dorminant group of immigrants. It's not for fairness to every country. They don't want to have a group of immigrants with the same ethnic background and it may endanger the power of the white people. Apparently it is a ridiculous rule because the mexicans are the real threat to their power. Indian and Chinese immigrants are not the real threat to their power and our number is less than 10% of mexican population in the US.
In this country it takes years to pass a bill. When they pass the bill, it might be too late already. The endless waiting of GC has killed all the creation and motivation of all these immigrants. Also many talented people have returned to their home countries. If you cheat people and seek a refugee GC, it only takes several months. If you work hard and stay honest and seek for an EB GC, it takes years. Isn't it ridiculous?
The reason for the delay of passing this kind of bills is that there is too much compromise and resistance. Too many different groups are fighting for their own benefits. The spanish group in the congress blocked all the EB GC bills because they want to get benefits for illegals. Although many congress people know a visa reacpture bill is good for this country, they just can't pass it. There are too much bull shit and too much fighting to pass any bill in this country.
Quote:
Originally Posted by qesehmk