In the case of Avila-Perez, the BIA has held that an individual who filed a visa petition which was approved before the August 6, 2002 effective date of CSPA can still be eligible for CSPA protection if the I-485 application for adjustment of status was filed after this date. This opens the protection of CSPA to a larger group of applicants which is a very positive development.
U.S. Economy Needs Skilled Foreign Workers
The recent debate over immigration policy commonly depicts immigrants as undocumented, uneducated people who flood our borders without inspection.
Although many immigrants who enter this country are unskilled laborers who provide essential services in many sectors of our economy, of equal importance to the immigration debate are the highly educated foreign professionals whose skills play a vital role in the enrichment of our economy.
The
Our prestigious graduate institutions currently train more foreign nationals than
We must retain the educated professionals who we have trained internally in order to benefit from the unique skills that they possess. By sending the best and the brightest workers back to their respective countries, we only create competition for ourselves, thereby diminishing
In order to increase the number of highly skilled professional in this country, it is necessary to reform the employment based-immigration system and provide a sufficient amount of avenues though which
H-1B visas, or temporary skilled worker visas, are currently capped at 65,000 annually. Yet this “cap” is reached in a couple of months, and
At the same time, we must increase recruitment and training of
It is important that skilled workers are not overlooked in the current debate regarding comprehensive immigration reform. Raising the H-1B visa cap is vital to maintaining our leadership in the world market. By retaining foreign nationals, we may ensure that
Congress Extends Availability of Visas for Nurses to Work in Underserved Areas
On 12/6/06, the Senate passed the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Reauthorization Act of 2005 (H.R. 1285). Passed by House on 6/20/06, the bill extends for three years the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act of 1999, which provides for up to 500 foreign nurses to come to the U.S. annually on H-1C visas to work in medically underserved areas.
Information provided by AILA.