H-1B CAP LIKELY TO BE REACHED EARLY THIS FALL; STUDY FINDS CHILDREN OF H-1B PARENTS ARE AMERICA'S MATH & SCIENCE STARS

Posted on August 25, 2004

H-1B CAP LIKELY TO BE REACHED EARLY THIS FALL; STUDY FINDS CHILDREN OF H-1B PARENTS ARE AMERICA'S MATH & SCIENCE STARS

This Article is Contributed by Immigration Attorney Mira Mdivani, THE MDIVANI LAW FIRM, LLC

H-1B Cap Likely To Be Reached Early This Fall

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on August 4, 2004, that they have received 40,000 H-1B visa petitions toward the fiscal year 2005 cap. For all practical purposes, the cap this year stands at 58,200(65,000 minus H-1B visas allocated to nationals of Chile and Singapore). As you may remember, last year the cap was reached in February 2004, five months after fiscal year 2004 began. This year, with only approximately 18,000 H-1B visas left, we may find ourselves in a situation where the cap is reached before the fiscal year 2005 starts on October 1. This is bad news for the U.S. economy for at least three reason: 1. US employers will suffer because they will be unable to bring talented hi-tech workers from abroad; 2. This will cause even more reverse brain drain and outsourcing of U.S. jobs to places like China and India; and 3. By closing the door on high-tech workers (and their talented children, see a note below) from abroad, we are potentially hurting our technological future.

Study Finds Children of H-1B Parents Are America's Math & Science Superstars

The International Educator Journal recently published Stuart Anderson's article about research conducted by the National Foundation for American Policy. The study finds that foreign-born professionals and students are contributing more to the United States than previously thought - their children are rising intellectual superstars - and without them America's technological and scientific standing is at risk. An astounding 60 percent of the top science students in the United States and 65 percent of the top math students are the children of immigrants. In addition, foreign-born high school students make up 50 percent of the 2004 U.S. Math Olympiad's top scorers, 38 percent of the U.S. Physics Team, and seven out of 10 award winners at the Intel Science Talent search - America's most prestigious award for young scientists and mathematicians. In addition, in the 2004 Intel Science Talent Search, more participants have parents who entered the U.S.
on H-1B visas than parents born in the U.S. To place this in perspective, please note that new H-1B visa holders represent less then 0.04 percent of the U.S. population. The study concludes that maintaining an open door policy toward skilled professionals, international students and those who want to immigrate to the U.S. based on their education and skills, is vital to U.S. technological and scientific standing in the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Attorney Mira Mdivani practices immigration law with THE MDIVANI LAW FIRM, LLC in Overland Park, KS. Her areas of expertise include work visas such as H-1Bs, L-1s, employment-based green cards, immigration law compliance plans for employers, family immigration, and naturalization. She can be reached at (913)317-6200 or www.uslegalimmigration.com. Please note that this column contains no legal advice and you should never rely on what is written in the newspaper without speaking to a lawyer in person about your case.