Detailed Summary

High-Tech Worker Relief Act of 2007 - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to increase the number of annual H-1B (specialty occupation) visa entrants for FY2007 and FY2008.

Eliminates the 20,000 annual cap on aliens with master's or higher degrees who can enter the United States without being subject to H-1B visa limits.

Exempts from direct numerical limitations: (1) aliens with an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering, or math who have been working in a related field in the United States during the three-year period preceding their application for an employment-based immigrant visa; (2) certain aliens who are priority workers or who have received a national interest waiver; and (3) immediate relatives.

Status of the Legislation

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Points in Favor

Provided by www.immigrationvoice.org

This is a big crisis occurring with EB green cards. Because these visas are distributed equally among all countries, with a quota set for each country, backlogs have resulted for individuals coming from high-demand countries, even when the overall cap has not been reached and regardless of the fact that these high-demand countries are often the only source of individuals capable of filling high-skilled jobs American businesses need. Once the quota is met for nationals of a given country, only those who applied before a set cut-off date are able to get visas. The rest are forced to spend up to seven years waiting, unable to become true stakeholders in our country, putting their lives on hold in the hopes that a green card will eventually become available to them. Not surprisingly, these talented professionals often tire of waiting and leave the U.S. to put their knowledge and skills to use in other countries eager to compete with and surpass the U.S.

The EB visa programs is a vital tool necessary to keep the U.S. economy competitive in the world market and to keep jobs in America. Far from harming U.S. workers and the U.S. economy, highly educated foreign professionals benefit our country by allowing U.S. employers to develop new products, undertake groundbreaking research, implement new projects, expand operations, create additional new jobs, and compete in the global marketplace. As President Bush has remarked, if these professionals are not permitted to come to the U.S. to share their expertise, they will go to other countries and benefit companies abroad instead. The end result will be American jobs lost and American projects losing out to foreign competition, with devastating long-term consequences for the U.S. economy.

Immediate action is needed to resolve this problem. Organizations like www.Immigrationvoice.org and Compete America (http://www.competeamerica.org/) are working hard and meeting lawmakers and urging them to resolve it as soon as possible. Everyone affected by this problem should join hands and work towards getting this resolved.

Points Against

Provided by www.programmersguild.org

The problem with this bill is that it expands the H-1b program without correcting these flaws that are causing harm to qualified American workers:

Currently only the 1% of H-1b-dependent employers must make a good faith effort to recruit U.S. workers. Indian bodyshops can hire exclusively H-1b provided they either pay their workers $60,000 OR hire workers with at least a masters degree - in which case there is no minimum salary. This explains why many bodyshop ads requiring a masters degree.

Currently it is legal for employers to use the H-1b visa to displace qualified American workers. (Ref: programmersguild.blogspot.com/2007/05/congressional-report-documents-that-h.html)

Currently the H-1b "prevailing wage" is the 17th percentile of what average Americans earn in the same jobs. (Ref: www.prweb.com/releases/2006/7/prweb407549.htm)

IT wages have been falling (relative to inflation and other professions) for the past several years, and the total number of jobs is still below the peak - but 500,000 H-1b have flooded the job market anyway. Many highly skilled Americans cannot find work. Employers report receiving hundreds of resumes for single positions by running a classified ad. Microsoft does not recruit at any of the 22 California State University campuses, and only makes offers to about one percent of applicants.

Open any major U.S. newspaper and you'll see only a few IT/Software job ads - and many of those are fake job ads for PERM greencard recruitment www.programmersguild.org/RIR/

If there were a labor shortage, then employers would be lining up to hire the IT workers being laid off by HP, Intel, and IBM. But in fact most of these workers have trouble finding jobs, and some are forced to leave the profession: (Ref: programmersguild.blogspot.com/2007/05/us-corporations-are-purging-top.html)

The fundamental duty to Congress is to protect the interests of Americans, which includes the liberty to pursue one's chosen profession. If there are labor shortages, wages will rise, thus drawing in more workers: Limit H-1b to those few instances where no Americans are available, and let the free market fill the remaining positions.