U.S. IMPOSES LIMITS ON BUSINESS-SPONSORED VISAS

Miami Herald, The (FL) - Saturday, September 17, 2005
Author: ALFONSO CHARDY, achardy@herald.com

To understand an extraordinary shift this week in the awarding of visas for business-sponsored immigrants, imagine you're a talented engineer from India ready to move to South Florida where a job is waiting.

If you applied for the visa last year, you'll likely get your travel papers soon. But if you are applying now, you may have to wait at least four to six years - if not longer - to get your visa.

That's because the State Department this week announced new limits for immigrant visas that make it impossible to secure business-sponsored visas for nationals from China, India and the Philippines - who make up a large percentage of skilled workers - unless they filed applications before new deadline requirements.

Every month, the department sets filing dates for family and employment-based immigrant visas - the dates by which applicants are eligible to have their documents accepted and processed. Generally, the categories of employment-based visas are listed as current, meaning they are available.

But the October visa bulletin from the State Department shows specific dates by which applications would be accepted. Most were backdated to several years ago, meaning only applicants who filed before those dates would be processed. In one instance, only Indian nationals who filed before Nov. 1, 1999, can be assured an immigrant visa in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Michael Bander , a Miami immigration attorney who specializes in employment-based immigrant visas, called the change a ``disaster.''

The backdated deadlines, ironically, are the result of efforts by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to reduce its own green-card processing backlogs, immigration attorneys said. Approving green card applications reduces the number of employment-based visas available.

An agency spokesman disputed that explanation, but declined to offer an alternate.

Tammy Fox-Isicoff, another Miami immigration lawyer specializing in business visas, said one of the largest electronics companies in China which recently opened a subsidiary in Miami faces the prospect of severe personnel shortages because of the visa shortage.

Fox-Isicoff declined to name the company or provide other details. She predicted that the net effect of the new limits will be to force many U.S. companies to send jobs abroad rather than bringing foreign workers here.

The new visa limitations underscore the growing difficulty highly-educated foreign nationals face in trying to resettle in the United States.

Under legal immigration rules, only about 620,000 people are eligible for immigrant visas per year, either to reunite with family members or to work at a business. Of that quota, 140,000 are for business-sponsored immigrants.