You may have recently learned about the new piece of immigration legislation before Congress called the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019, H.R. 1044. The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act is intended to clear the backlogs facing skilled workers, primarily from India and China, seeking permanent residency in the U.S. for themselves as well as their spouses and children. With bipartisan support from Congress, and a similar bill with bipartisan support in the Senate, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 attempts to surgically correct an obvious flaw in the U.S. immigration system. At its simplest, this bill doesn’t add any new visas, it merely eliminates roadblocks for workers who have lived in, worked in, and contributed to the U.S. for years and who want to become citizens. 

 

Under the Current Immigration System 

 

Today’s immigration system imposes quotas on the number of visas given to citizens of a particular country—currently no more than 7% of the total number of visas allocated can be allocated to any single country. Because this system fails to account for the different population sizes of other countries, it negatively affects immigrants originating in larger countries. For example, India has a population of 2.5 times larger than the European Union (EU); this means India, with a population of over a billion people, is apportioned the same number of visas as a country such as Iceland, which has a population of approximately 340,000 people.  

 

The disparity in the number of available visas and the size of the originating country has resulted in decades-long wait times for immigrants from India and China. The Cato Institute has an interesting article, 150-Year Wait for Indian Immigrants With Advanced Degrees, that describes the situation facing highly skilled Indian immigrants trying to obtain permanent residency in the U.S. 

 

The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act 

 

The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act will remove the per-country caps pertaining to employment-based visas, and shift to a first-come, first-serve basis. The bill will also increase the per-country allocation of visas from 7% to 15%. It’s predicted that passing the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act will lead to a significant reduction in visa backlogs for Indian and Chinese foreign nationals, and speed up the process of gaining permanent residency for the spouses and children of H-1B visa holders—the latter of which risk aging out of their visas and being sent back to their home countries. 

 

Seeing that the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act will not add any additional visas, immigrants from smaller countries with lower demand for visas will face longer wait times. 

 

Conclusions

 

Although the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act doesn’t correct all of the issues with our current immigration system, it does address an obvious flaw and offers a sensible solution for the multitude of foreign professionals living and working in the U.S. today. Receiving overwhelming support in Congress, the bill passed by 365 to 65 votes. However, companion legislation in the Senate is facing a less certain future despite support across the aisle, meaning it could get caught up in committees before being put to a vote on the Senate floor. After that, the bill’s future is even more uncertain, as it gets passed along to an executive branch with a history of being unfriendly to immigration. 

 

GoffWilson Immigration 

 

While the U.S. government attempts to correct imperfections in its immigration system, GoffWilson is here to help you. Soley practicing immigration, GoffWilson can assist you in navigating the complexities of the green card process. Practicing both employment and family immigration, we help individuals and families come to the U.S. to live their American dreams. Immigration isn’t just what we do, it’s our passion. Contact us today!

Fee Type	Current Fee	Final Fee	Incremental Fee Adjustment
I-901 F/M	$200	$350	$150
I-901 J-Full	$180	$220	$40
I-901 J-Partial	$35	$35	$0
I-17 Initial Certification	$1,700	$3,000	$1,300
I-17 Recertification	$0	$1,250	$1,250
Site Visit-Initial	$655	$655	$0
Site Visit-New Location	$0	$655	$655
Appeal Fee	$0	$675	$675

There are still some good seats remaining for our informative must-do seminar, Understanding the Current I-9 Form in an Aggressive Enforcement Environment. Register today to be on top of your game! 

 

This half-day seminar is Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at 2 Delta Drive in Concord, NH, and includes a scrumptious breakfast.

 

Here are a few reasons (on top of the breakfast) to register now:

Visit our website for more information or click here to register now. We look forward to seeing you! 

Learn to successfully navigate in a more aggressive worksite enforcement environment. Sign up for our next I-9 training here. 
 

The current administration has made it clear, through Executive Orders, that enforcement of employment verification laws will be more rigorous. There is a new proposal to hire 10,000 more U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, many of whom will focus on I-9 audits (often referred to as “desktop raids”). 
 

The I-9 form affects all employers in the country, and the Trump administration has vowed to assess millions of dollars in civil penalties for I-9 violations and employment discrimination. Small businesses across the U.S. have already been assessed thousands of dollars in civil penalties for I-9 violations, with some companies losing their business licenses and being squeezed out of the bidding process for government contracts
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HR professionals, recruiters, and anyone who works with the I-9 form should attend this important seminar to keep themselves, and their compliance programs, up to date on current I-9 regulations. GoffWilson’s experienced I-9 team will teach tips on compliance and the E-Verify process, and answer any I-9 questions you may have. Participants are given hands-on exercises to put education into practice and learn about the civil and criminal penalties associated with non-compliance.
 

At the conclusion of this seminar, you’ll have the information you need to avoid the pitfalls of the I-9 landscape—and the confidence that comes with knowing you’re in compliance. If you need to understand the array of compliance-related regulations or simply want to brush up on the latest I-9 info, sign up today! GoffWilson I-9 Workshops offer participants recertification credit hours through the HR Certification Institute (HRCI) for PHP, SPHR, and GPHR.
 

GoffWilson offers I-9 training in public and private settings several times throughout the year. Contact our office today to sign up or to request more information! Also, stay tuned to our bLAWg for more updates on I-9 compliance and keeping your company up to date. It’s what we do and it’s our passion. 

 

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a final rule in an effort to create a more effective and efficient H-1B visa program. The rule will go in effect April 1 and changes the way in which petitions are selected in the annual H-1B visa lottery. The new rule also paves the way for further changes—namely electronic registration—in the fiscal year (FY) 2021 cap season. Keep reading to learn what exactly these changes are and how they will affect your business. 

 

Change of Lottery Selection Order

 

The most immediate change brought by the new rule is restructuring of the order in which the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) selects H-1B visa allocations. Beginning this year, the USCIS will select 65,000 H-1B petitions for all applicants first, followed by the selection of 20,000 petitions from applicants with a U.S. master's degree or higher. 

 

In the past, the USCIS has selected the 20,000 applicants with a U.S. masters degree or higher before selecting 65,000 H-1B petitions from all applicants. According to a press release from the USCIS, the rule change will result in a 16%—or 5,340 workers—increase in individuals with a master's degree or higher from a U.S. institution having their petition selected.   

 

Electronic Registration 

 

While the revised selection process goes into effect this year, the electronic registration process that was proposed along with it—as we detailed in our blawg, A Step Forward for the H-1B Visa Process, Or Is It?—will be delayed until the FY 2021 cap season. The decision to delay the rollout of electronic registration is in response to public feedback—and is embraced by many immigration lawyers, including us—as it allows the USCIS more time to ensure the system and process are fully functioning before going live. 

 

Once implemented, the electronic registration process will present a large shift in the way H-1B visas are processed. Beginning in FY 2021 cap season, electronic registration will be required of all H-1B cap petitioners, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption, to electronically register—rather than submitting a complete H-1B petition—with the USCIS during a designated period. 

 

What These Changes Mean for Employers

 

Depending on an employer’s hiring strategy, this rule may or may not be beneficial. For employers seeking to hire foreign nationals with advanced degrees from U.S. colleges and universities, the odds of being selected in the H-1B visa lottery has improved. However, there could be unintended consequences to the new rule, such as putting businesses that employ professionals in fields that don’t require a masters degree—for example, architecture, accounting, and public education—at a disadvantage. It could also have an impact on the healthcare sector, which heavily relies on foreign physicians, many of whom completed their medical education overseas. The rule will also lower the odds for some of the most skilled and qualified applicants with foreign advanced degrees—like those from prestigious universities such as Oxford University, Sorbonne University, and the University of Toronto.

 

The new electronic registration process will make it easier for employers to participate in the H-1B lottery and USCIS believes it will make the H-1B cap process more cost-effective for petitioners and more efficient for the USCIS. But, will this be the result? 

 

On the surface, only needing to simply register for the H-1B lottery, rather than submit a completed petition, would seem like a positive for employers. However, in many ways, this could end up costing employers additional time. The most notable potential problem is that the registration system could become inundated with non-meritorious applications. 

 

Why GoffWilson 

 

GoffWilson solely practices immigration law and has successfully assisted thousands of employers and employees with their H-1B petitions. If you have a question about the H-1B visa, how to put your petition together with the best chance for success, and how the new rule will affect your business, contact GoffWilson today. Put our thirty-plus years of experience and success with immigration and deep knowledge of the H-1B visa to work for you. Immigration—it’s ALL we do!