NEWS CONTACTS: Susan Mora (202) 822-9491 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 10, 2005

USCIS H-1B Announcement Undercuts New Law

Decision Inconsistent with Past Agency Statements and Congressional Intent

Washington, D.C. - Compete America today criticized the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for a recent announcement regarding its intended procedures for processing applications for 20,000 supplemental H-1B visas.

The additional visas were made available by Congress last year to provide an immediate remedy to the H-1B visa crisis. Senate and House negotiators agreed on language which would exempt up to 20,000 foreign students with advanced degrees granted by U.S. universities from the annual H-1B cap.

H-1B visas are for temporary employment, and are reserved for highly educated foreign nationals - often employed in scientific research, medicine, technology and education - and are capped at 65,000 annually. The 2005 cap was reached on October 1, 2004 - the very first day of the Federal government's new fiscal year - signaling to Congress that there was a crisis in the program.

"Congress responded by exempting 20,000 foreign graduate students from the H-1B cap, enabling these highly educated professionals to remain in the United States. The solution makes sense. These workers contribute significantly to our economic growth," said Sandra Boyd, National Association of Manufacturers Human Resources Policy Vice President and Compete America Chair.

Statements USCIS issued last fall regarding the procedures that would be used to distribute the 20,000 new visas clearly illustrate that the agency understood Congress' intent to make these supplemental visas available solely to those candidates meeting the Masters and PhD degree requirement. An agency statement released yesterday, however, indicates that USCIS intends to make the additional visas available on a first-come-first-served basis to any generally qualified H-1B applicant.

"The agency's decision to reverse its position on the allocation of the additional visas is troubling at two levels. First, it seems to ignore Congressional intent. Second, it shows blatant disregard for the business planning process. Companies across the country have made staffing decisions over the past four months based on the agency's original statements. This about face is exacerbated by the fact that the agency is not accepting applications for the additional visas-despite the fact that Congress told them to make the numbers available on March 8, 2005. USCIS has, in essence, sent all these businesses scrambling. It's very disruptive and damaging," added Lynn Shotwell, Executive Director of the American Council on International Personnel.

Compete America (www.competeamerica.org) is a coalition of more than 200 corporations, universities, research institutions and trade associations concerned about legal, employment-based immigration and committed to ensuring that the United States has the highly educated workforce necessary to ensure continued innovation, job creation and leadership in a worldwide economy.

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