50,000 Foreign-Born Stem Workers May Be Forced Home

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50,000 Foreign-Born STEM Workers May Be Forced Home Homeland Security has until Feb. 12 to fix a visa extension that allows STEM students and graduates to work in the U.S.

 

 

Tens of thousands of foreign-born students and recent graduates in the science, technology, engineering and math fields may be forced to either re-enroll in a university or leave the country if a STEM visa extension expires in February.

By Alan Neuhauser Sept. 9, 2015 | 1:35 p.m. EDT+ More

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Monday marked an uneasy Labor Day for some of the most in-demand workers in America.

Early next year, as many as 50,000 workers in the science, technology, engineering and math fields – born abroad, but educated in the U.S. – may be forced to leave the country, a federal court found Aug. 12.

“I’m tense now, I don’t know what to do,” says Venu, who earned a master’s degree from San Diego State University in 2014 and works as a software developer in Virginia. (He asked to use only his first name to avoid affecting his employment.) “Knowing I might need to leave the U.S. and go back to India all the sudden, it’s difficult for me.” 

 

For decades, the "optional practical training" visa, or OPT, has allowed students and new graduates to prolong their F-1 visa student status in the U.S. to gain on-the-job learning for up to a year. Amid the financial crisis in April 2008, Homeland Security hastily tacked on an additional 17 months forSTEM students and graduates. 

[READ: The 2015 U.S. News/Raytheon STEM Index]

High-tech firms welcomed the extension, saying they were simply desperate for workers. Labor unions and conservative immigration groups, by contrast, allege it essentially created a loophole, one that robs American workers of some of the fastest-growing and highly paid jobs in the country by making it easier for companies to hire young, recent graduates who, thanks to their student-visa status, are largely tax-exempt and therefore may be cheaper to hire. 

“You’re right in the middle of the war against working Americans,” says attorney John Miano, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, who challenged the visa extension on behalf of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, a chapter of the Communications Workers of America. “This replaces American workers with foreign-born workers.” 

The District Court of the District of Columbia did not entirely agree – but it did vacate the extension last month. Finding little issue with the extension itself, Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle ruled that Homeland Security was wrong to skip a required public notice and comment period. She gave the department six months to reissue the STEM extension. But with little word from the agency so far, as many as 60 days needed for public comment, another 30 before the rule is published, plus the Thanksgiving and December holidays, the Feb. 12, 2016, deadline is looming.

“I was hoping to see some action from DHS by now, but there really isn’t much going on,” says Emily Lopez Neumann, an attorney at the Texas-based immigration firm Reddy & Neumann.

STEM executives say they've been following it all closely. The extension, they maintain, is little short of a godsend, enabling them to find, train and retain high-end specialized talent they say is in intensely short supply. 

“We are starving for workers,” says Luis von Ahn, CEO of the language-learning app Duolingo and a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. “There’s high unemployment, but there’s just not many people with advanced degrees in STEM.”

[STEM SOLUTIONS: Not Everyone With a STEM Degree Chooses a STEM Job]

Immigration advocates, meanwhile, contend the extension has provided a much-needed bridge to obtaining a longer-lasting H-1B work permit, which only a third of the roughly 240,000 applicants received in the last fiscal year. Rather than having just one shot at an H-1B when applications open each April 1, workers on the OPT STEM extension can instead get a second or even third chance if their application isn't accepted the first time, reducing the likelihood they’ll be forced to either re-enroll in a university to retain their student visa or take their U.S.-educated skills overseas.

“The goal is to bridge the gap and keep these American-educated kids here rather than sending them out of the country to compete against us,” Neumann says.

The opponents who challenged the extension in court, however, see something more nefarious: collusion between regulators and industry at the expense of U.S. workers.

"They dropped these regulations in place," Miano says. "It just stinks to high heaven." 

He pointed to Disney’s reported announcement in January that it would lay off 250 technology workersand replace many of them with foreigners on the H-1B visa. The company, however, walked back that decision less than two weeks after it was reported on in the New York Times, and legal experts now say it may have violated federal regulations if carried out. 

"No doubt, the rights of U.S. workers do need to be considered," says Bob Whitehill, immigration lawyer at Fox Rothschild in Pittsburgh. But, he continues, "the idea that students would come to the U.S., paying full tuition, to study for years to graduate with a bachelor’s or higher degree in a STEM field for the purpose of obtaining OPT, then STEM OPT, in order to provide cut-rate tech services is a bit far-fetched."   

STEM executives add that two and a half years is still a short window when it comes to recruiting and training workers for specialized STEM positions, an inefficiency they say far outweighs any difference there might be in salary between a foreign and U.S. worker.

“Getting somebody up to speed in our area of technology takes six months," says Andre Anderko, managing director of OLI Systems, a 25-employee chemical engineering software and research firm, where two workers are on the H-1B. "Even if they are extremely talented, it's next to impossible to train somebody, get a good idea of their qualifications, then arrange an H-1B visa for them in 12 months." 

[ALSO: It's Not New Orleans That Most Worries Disaster Experts]

Hence, if anything, says von Ahn of Duolingo, which has about five of its 50 employees on the OPT and 10 on the H-1B, when it comes to workers on either of the two visas, “if all things are equal, there’s probably some discrimination against them. Whoever already has a work permit for the U.S. is a surefire bet, whereas foreigners, not only is the process for applying for a visa time-consuming and expensive, there’s a huge uncertainty if, a year from now, you might be able to get them.”

Attorneys say they expect Homeland Security to issue a rule by late October. Miano, meanwhile, has appealed the court’s ruling.

All the while, foreign-born workers and their employers simply wait for a ruling, checking Google every morning for an update, they say.

“We just want to have a normal life. We want to do more and contribute,” says Rahul Shambhuni, of India, who earned a master’s degree from Old Dominion University and now works for a telecommunications company in Los Angeles. "We have a chance to do that here, not really back in the home country. That’s good for us, and good for the U.S., too.”

The Justice Department, which represented Homeland Security in the lawsuit, referred questions to Homeland Security, which did not return phone and email requests for comment.

 

[JANASENA]

malla source anakandi idigo : 

 

 

 

http://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2015/09/09/court-ruling-homeland-security-misstep-imperils-50-000-stem-workers

[CKRAVI]

Holy Shiit .. nijangane pampinchesthara.. I dont think so..lobby chesi edo oka solution teeskostharule.. stay strong and hope for best all OPT guys 

[JANASENA]

Holy Shiit .. nijangane pampinchesthara.. I dont think so..lobby chesi edo oka solution teeskostharule.. stay strong and hope for best all OPT guys 

 

 

pamparu just a news 

[thanks]

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bye1

[Connexion]

[vizagpower]

h1 approved vallaki emmi prob undada ???

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h1 approved vallaki emmi prob undada ???

[mustang302]

bhalae vastae ituvanti news...evadu rasthado kaani articles...!!

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answer chepu sarvadu 

[Balibabu]

:3D_Smiles:

 

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answer chepu sarvadu 

[phatposts]

The way I think, the OPT extension will come back. 29 months, 6 years I don't know that. Kaani aa rule vache lopu extension cheyyalsina students status ee most miserable. 

Current H1B competetion lo 2 chances lekunda F1 vaallaki H1 chances kashtam. F1 ki craze taggipote US ki chala loss. 

 

H1B candidates meeda money save chestaru kaani F1 students are key for the US (IMO). So I hope something will be done soon. 

[alpachinao]

The way I think, the OPT extension will come back. 29 months, 6 years I don't know that. Kaani aa rule vache lopu extension cheyyalsina students status ee most miserable. 

Current H1B competetion lo 2 chances lekunda F1 vaallaki H1 chances kashtam. F1 ki craze taggipote US ki chala loss. 

 

H1B candidates meeda money save chestaru kaani F1 students are key for the US (IMO). So I hope something will be done soon. 

 

entha vuntundi numbers lo