> TE Home
> About TE
> Contact Us
> Editorial Info
> IEEE-USA

07.08

STEM Immigration Bills Gathering Support in Congress

By Russ Harrison

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) has introduced legislation in Congress that will dramatically change America’s skill-based immigration system. Her bills will make it significantly easier for non-Americans with advanced education and skilled to become citizens.

Lofgren’s bills reform the Employment-Based (or EB) visa. This is the most common visa used by foreigners to become Americans based on their skills, as opposed to family connections. To qualify for an EB visa, individuals must have a job offer in the United States, and usually need to have at least a Bachelors degree. People with a higher-level degrees get preferential access to the visas. In some cases, skills can be substituted for education.

EB visa holders are permanent legal residents and can, after a few years, apply for citizenship. While using an EB visa, they have the same legal rights as American workers (except they can’t vote or get security clearances). Most importantly, EB visa holders can move across the country and across the economy as they wish, just as an American worker could. Currently, 140,000 EB visas are available each year, although this count includes the spouses and children of workers. Some 60,000 individual workers are able to use the program each year.

Chairwoman Lofgren has introduced three separate bills that would expand the EB program.

H.R. 5882  would recapture EB visas that went unused in past years, usually because of bureaucratic delays. These visas would be available to people who are currently waiting for a visa.

H.R. 5921 would eliminate country caps in the EB program. Current law limits how many immigrants from the same country can use the visas in a given year. Removing these limits would allow talented people to enter the United States regardless of where they were born.

H.R. 6039 exempts international students who receive a masters or PhD from an American school from the EB visa caps. This would effectively allow anyone who receives an advanced degree in the United States to move directly from their student visa to a permanent green card and, in a few years, citizenship.

All three bills have bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. A companion bill to H.R. 6039 has been introduced in the Senate. S. 3084 was sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and cosponsored by Sen. Gregg (R-N.H.).

A fourth bill, introduced by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) would also expand the EB program. Issa’s bill, H.R. 6090, would eliminate an unrelated visa category, adding its 55,000 visas to the EB program. These extra EB visas would be available to STEM graduates with advanced degrees and a job offer in a STEM field. The affect of H.R. 6090 on STEM students would be the same as H.R. 6039, as only about 38,000 international students earn advanced degrees in these fields each year. Issa belongs to the minority party in Congress and, as of publication, his bill has only Republican support, making passage unlikely.

Congresswoman Lofgren is Chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, which gives her considerable influence over all immigration legislation. Lofgren is an immigration attorney by profession and represents part of Silicon Valley, which makes her a recognized expert on high-skill immigration policy.

Her sponsorship of these bills ensures that they will be at the center of any debate over high-skilled immigration. But it doesn’t mean the bills will pass. While few legislators object to these bills in principle, opposition from legislators who do not want to increase the number of visas available to anyone, and legislators who only want comprehensive immigration reform, may block the bills in 2008. If they do, Lofgren will likely reintroduce the bills next year where the political climate will be more favorable.

IEEE-USA has publicly endorsed all three Lofgren bills and is working hard to win passage of them this year. IEEE members who wish to express their opinions on these bills are encouraged to visit the IEEE-USA Legislative Action Center at www.ieeeusa.org/policy/lac to send your legislators e-mail expressing your opinions.

If you have questions about these bills or IEEE-USA’s position on them, please contact IEEE-USA staffer Vin O’Neill at v.oneill@ieee.org.

Why is the EB Visa Preferable to the H-1B Program?

For nearly a decade, IEEE-USA has loudly and publicly opposed the H-1B visa program. Now IEEE-USA is supporting an expansion of the EB program. Have we changed our minds?

Not at all. IEEE-USA continues to oppose expanding the H-1B program, unless it undergoes significant reform. And we have always supported an expansion of the EB visa program. While the two programs are similar, they have several crucial differences.

The most important of these differences is that the H-1B visa is a temporary work permit. It lets people work in the United States for six years, but does not give them any residency rights or access to citizenship. Workers using an H-1B have difficulty changing jobs, and cannot switch jobs if they want to transition to a permanent immigration visa. They are also prohibited from starting their own companies.

In contrast, the EB is an immigration visa. Holders of the EB are permanent legal residents who, if they wish, can become citizens. The EB lets immigrants switch jobs, move and start companies like any American.

The advantage of this difference is that EB workers are fully vested in America. They can move, change jobs or even careers. H-1B workers need their employer’s sponsorship to remain in the country, and as a result, they can be easily exploited by unscrupulous employers.

For example, if an EB visa holder learns that his employer is paying him less than American citizens for the same job, he can simply quit. An H-1B worker in the same situation generally cannot. Companies that sponsor H-1B workers know that they have the visa holders at a disadvantage because they would need their employer to sign off on any changes to their visa.

IEEE-USA believes that the United States should welcome skilled foreigners into our economy as citizens, not just temporary help. The EB Visa allows the United States to welcome the world’s most talented people as permanent citizens.

Therefore, IEEE-USA opposes expanding the H-1B program (in its current form), but fully supports expanding the EB visa program.

Russell T. Harrison is IEEE-USA's Legislative Representative for Grassroots Activities. Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.