I believe a lot of folks here are not familiar with how horrible the immigration process for a foreign born advanced STEM (science technology engineering mathematics) degree graduate is, in the US now.
I wanted to write a letter to the President to point out some of the issues with the system within the 2500 word limit. I thought it might be beneficial to post this letter here. I know how hard the IT worker gun-for-hire policies have hurt the American IT worker, and how the H1-B visa contributed to this. This has led to folks blaming the H-1B program as a whole, as well as much stricter regulations on H-1B filings after Obama took office. It's a good thing if the H-1B visa only applied to these guns-for-hire but that is not the case.
On a sidenote, the Democrats held up a STEM immigration bill because it eliminated the diversity visa lottery. I agree diversity is good, but if we had a choice in nation-building, and had one visa to give, would we give that to a random person, or a person with validated education and skills from a US university?
Another sore point is the per-country cap which I couldn't fit into the 2500 word limit. The country caps make sense for diversity and family visas to ensure fairness. But for employment based visas? For a country that aims to not discriminate against you based on your nation of origin, why are caps based on nation of origin even relevant to employment based immigration?
My aim is not to incite, but to inform. And in this letter, I wish to inform
(a) how hard it is for a qualified advanced US STEM degree-holder to become a resident and citizen of the US
(b) how the current up-to 29 month OPT program leads to terrible abuse of the foreign born advanced degree graduate but also of the American worker who could have qualified for that job. When a company can hire a candidate with an MS in Engineering and pay $15 an hour and keep the employee for 29 months, instead of paying $32 for a reasonably qualified worker, knowing full well that options for the graduate to find a job with a company that does sponsorship (even for legitimate jobs where they cannot find an American worker, companies are stepping away from H-1B sponsorship due to the increased burden and rejections). I personally know a friend who has two Masters and a PhD who accepted a job paying $52K a year because the OPT program restricts your cumulative unemployment period during the 29 months to 90 days. While the H-1B system has some protections to ensure that the company is paying a wage commensurate to the position and candidate qualifications, the OPT program has no such limitations.
Together, the system has been stacked to the advantage of companies. This might be one place we can unleash the free market and have it benefit the American worker.
The letter lies below the orange squiggle.
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