My letter to Senator Grassley / w/some changes for my state senators.

Took portions of other letters from forum. Thanks to the authors and the Group

members,

Feel free to edit, peruse, or whatever… in full or partially

Keep up the fighting spirit.

Latinos – from Argentina, Brazil, to Venezuela….This bill is poison…Act now!

To:

Mr. Chuck Grassley

Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee

Re: Oppose H.R 3012/ S. 1857 Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrant Act

Dear Mr. Grassley,

I am writing this letter to thank you for your decision to put a hold on bill

H.R 3012/ S. 1857 Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrant Act, and I would kindly

ask you to ask you to request a deeper discussion and review of said bills that

have been submitted to consideration by the US Senate.

Being a beneficiary of the High-Skilled Worker Visa program myself, I would

respectfully like to call your attention on several controversial issues

surrounding H.R 3012/ S. 1857 which will be detrimental to a major immigrant

category identified as Rest of the World (ROW) , which brings a specific skill

set and diversity to the High-Skilled Worker Visa program.

The major concern from the ROW community is that the elimination of country caps

under which the current system works, would create an imbalance in favor of the

oversubscribed categories (currently, India and China), sending current ROW

applications up to 10 years back in the queue, for the existing amount of

available visas. For applicants that started this process 6-10 years ago, which

is my case, this is a very bleak prospect.

This would translate in an immediate cessation of visa approvals to nationals

from countries from the European Union, Latin America, Russia or Australia, to

name a few. Under the proposed amendments to the law, approximately 95% of the

available visas would go to applicants from India/China, making immediately

unavailable visas to applicants from other nationalities.

Specific professions would also be directly affected, as the majority of visas

would go to the IT sector, which has been traditionally monopolized by

India/China consultancies and `’body-shops” (hence, oversubscribed). Under this

scenario the US would no longer count with the influx of talent on diverse

industries specific to some countries and regions, such as oil-exploration and

production, chemical industries, medicine, communications, etc., which are areas

of equal or superior interests to the US economy, and where there is always

demand for foreign nationals’ professional expertise.

Proponents of these bills are miss-representing themselves as the `’voice” of

all high-killed workers, but that’s far from the truth. These bills have been

pushed without due consideration to all involved and affected groups that

conform the skilled immigration into the U.S.A.

Additionally, supporters of these bills blatantly ignore the implications for

existing ROW applicants, which should not be penalized after years of wait with

the passage of these amendments, just to see how their applications are sent

back to where they started.

Those of us that applied to the High-Skilled Worker Visa program did so with an

expectation of reasonable conditions and a timely resolution for our petitions.

We have fulfilled each and every requirement as demanded by the law to legally

immigrate into the USA. We just expect reciprocity from the institutions of

this great country, and that an improved version of those purposed `’

administrative fixes” can be produced, with as many amendments as necessary to

satisfy all the parties involved, without negatively affecting a considerable

group of applicants, that have already equally experienced considerable delays

in the approval process.

Finally, these bills also include provisions to make them retroactive to the

beginning of FY 2011, failing to provide any relief to the applicants already

in the pipeline, and about to receive visas during the current fiscal year, per

current projections. The bills make fundamental changes to current immigration

queues, yet it takes effect immediately upon passage. USCIS is not given any

time to study the impact of the bills, nor time to draft and implement new

guidance and regulations for immigration adjudicators

Those bills, in their current form, are not `’technical fixes”, but a major

overhaul with implications on all levels of the High-Skilled Worker Visa

program. I respectfully urge you to request enquires, including with USCIS

experts, and with representatives from the different nationalities and

industries other than the supporters and lobbyists working to push the bills. It

is necessary to have public debate on these bills as in their current form they

will not bring `’Fairness’ to the totality of the high-skilled immigrant

population, but will introduce elements that would play against the essence and

purpose of the High-Skilled Immigrant program.

I appreciate your time and expert consideration on these matters, with the hope

that you will succeed on spearheading the necessary actions to correct the

serious and fundamental issues arising from the proposed amendments.

With my upmost recognition for your services,