U.S. Proposes Rise in Immigration Fees
452945
By SUZANNE GAMBOA  WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is proposing to nearly double the cost of becoming a U.S. citizen and drastically raise the cost of becoming a legal permanent resident.
549492
The Bush administration's long-awaited plan to pay for a new, high-tech air traffic control system would eliminate the passenger ticket tax but raise other costs for people who fly.
14556
The fee increase would help cover the cost of processing offering plans submitted to the attorney generalâs office; such filings grew to 929 in 2006 from 299 in 2002.
766163
Three major technology trade groups urged the U.S. Senate on Friday to resurrect a wide-ranging immigration reform bill that would expand a controversial skilled-worker visa program.
645007
(InfoWorld) - The immigration reform deal announced in the U.S. Senate last week is a work in progress with an uncertain future in both houses of Congress. And its H-1B provisions aren't making either proponents or critics of the visa program happy. If the bill resulting from the bipartisan agreement survives the legislative gantlet, it will effectively increase the annual H-1B cap to 135,000 visas beginning in the next federal fiscal year, which starts in October. That is based on a proposed increase in the cap for regular H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000, plus the continuation of 20,000 visas that go to applicants who have received advanced degrees from U.S. universities, according to some groups that have analyzed the proposed legislation. The measure also would provide some relief for companies that applied for H-1B visas for the next fiscal year but lose a selection lottery held by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The USCIS received about 150,000 applications for the 65,000 regular visas on April 2, the first and only day that it accepted applications. A computer program will randomly generate a list of visa winners. But the Senate bill, if it reaches President Bush's desk as written, would apply to the 2008 fiscal year, enabling the USCIS to issue an additional 50,000 visas to applicants from this year's lottery pool. In addition, the proposal in the Senate would allow the new cap of 115,000 regular visas to quickly rise if it was reached during the first half of a fiscal year. If that happened, the cap would increase another 15 percent for that fiscal year and then an additional 15 percent for the subsequent year, although it couldn't go any higher than 180,000 visas annually. The legislation also incorporates some of the provisions included in an H-1B bill drafted earlier this year by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). For instance, no more than 50 percent of the U.S.-based employees at a company using H-1B workers can be visa holders. The proposed rule would apply that restriction to companies with 50 or more employees. That limit could have a substantial impact on India-based offshore services firms, many of which are heavy users of H-1B visas, said Charles Kuck, an immigration attorney and president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. If the offshore vendors have more than 50 percent of their employees in the U.S. working under visas, the Senate legislation's proposed limit would "disable them from using the [visa] program for some period of time," said Kuck. Companies that also use H-1B visas but employ large numbers of U.S workers, such as Microsoft, wouldn't be affected. But proposed changes in how green cards are awarded to foreign workers "is a much bigger problem" for IT vendors, said Kuck. The Senate bill would create a point system for issuing green cards based on the skills and education of the person seeking permanent residency. The current system is more market-driven because it allows employers to request green cards, more closely matching individual employees with needed skills. The Senate's bill "puts the U.S. government in charge of who can be employed in the United States," Kuck said. "As the bill stands now, I think it's pretty much a disaster for high-tech employers," said Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, during a conference call this week. The call was held to announce the release of a report arguing, among other things, that H-1B workers are helping the economy and aren't hurting U.S. programmers who enjoy low unemployment and high wages. But opponents of the H-1B program are dismayed over the proposed cap increase. John Miano, founder of the Summit, N.J.-based Programmers Guild, claims that H-1B workers are being used as a source of low-cost labor. Miano said studies done by his group have shown that the prevailing wage claims of companies with H-1B workers were about $16,000 less than actual prevailing wages. Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, thinks the H-1B program is discouraging students from entering high-tech fields and weakening the ability of the U.S. to innovate and even keep the military properly equipped. "I think the stakes are really pretty high here," Hira said. But many changes to the Senate bill are likely; in fact, the measure has already seen some. Last week, when initial drafts of the Senate bill surfaced, high-tech groups said that the 20,000-visa exemption for advanced degree holders had been removed from the legislation. But a later draft changed that, and the Compete America trade group, which represents high-tech organizations and other entities that support the H-1B program, says the exemption remains in the bill. Even if the bipartisan agreement shepherded by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) does get out of the Senate, it also must win approval in the House of Representatives, where it would face additional proposed changes. For instance, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.), who in 2005 introduced a bill called the Defend the American Dream Act that sought to improve protections for U.S. workers threatened by offshoring, plans to introduce new legislation this year. "We're close, and we're working out the details," said Caley Gray, a spokesman for Pascrell.
330420
The White House asked for more money and employees to secure U.S. borders and proposed hiking airline passenger fees to cover some of the increases for homeland security.
503175
The new immigration bill aims to revamp the guest worker program. A look at North Carolina shows what needs fixing
299381
Election officials Wednesday proposed overhauling the way tax dollars can be used to cover the cost of running for president, including an increase in the amount that can be spent by primary candidates who take public money.
603909
Revamping U.S. immigration laws to  let more Mexicans work legally in the United States is a high  priority, Secretary of State Colin Powell said, although a  skeptical Congress could still block the plan.
282467
The Bush administration proposed changes yesterday to a little-used agricultural guest-worker program that would provide incentives for farmers to hire foreigners legally.
391141
(InfoWorld) - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called on the U.S. Congress toÂ raise the cap on skilled-worker visas, saying the county's economic future was at stake. Gates, testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he'd prefer that "unlimited" numbers of highly skilled foreign workers be allowed into the U.S., although he acknowledged that might not be politically feasible. Right now,Â the controversial H-1B program, which tech vendors and other companies use to hire foreign workers, has an annual cap of 65,000 people a year, and the cap is typically reached in the first couple of months the applications are available. "We have to welcome the great minds of this world, not drive them out of this country," Gates said, repeating his earlier calls for a higher H-1B cap. "These employees are vital to American competitiveness. We should encourage them to become permanent U.S. residents; they provide the nation economic growth, alongside America's native-born talent." Several U.S. tech companies have recently said they have hundreds of unfilled jobs because they can't find qualified workers. Gates also repeated two other themes he said are necessary for the U.S. to continue to compete in a global economy: He called on Congress to improve the U.S. education system and increase government spending on research and development. Without those three changes, the U.S. is at risk of losing its economic power and high standard of living, he said. "When I reflect on the state of American competitiveness today, my immediate feeling of pride is mixed with great anxiety," he said. "The challenges confronting America's global competitiveness and technological leadership are among the greatest we have faced on our lifetime." This generation of U.S. residents is too often living off the innovations of the past, he said. He called for "courageous" leadership to fix failing U.S. high schools, find more money for research, and welcome more immigrants. Few senators challenged Gates' position on foreign-worker visas, instead asking questions about Gates' ideas on improving education, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation'sÂ funding of experimental high-school programs. U.S.-based tech worker groups such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA (IEEE-USA) have opposed a higher H-1B cap, arguing that companies use the program to hire foreign workers for less money than unemployed U.S. workers would receive. Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said he heard different stories from industries and workers during forums on the economy in his state last month. "Time and time again, local businesses told me that they just could not find the engineers or the computer scientists they needed to run their businesses," he said. "At the same time, skilled workers in my state are watching their jobs move overseas, not because foreign workers are more qualified, but because U.S. companies can get away with paying poverty wages to workers in other countries." Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who often votes with Democrats, also questioned the effect of outsourcing. U.S. companies can hire overseas engineers at a "fraction of the cost" of U.S. engineers, he said. The free trade agreements that allow easy outsourcing benefits the U.S., Gates answered. The U.S. tech industry is able to grow by being able to sell products all over the world, he said. "The demand worldwide for highly qualified engineers is going to guarantee them all jobs wherever they are located," Gates said. "The IT industry, I guarantee you, will be in the United States as long as we can get these people to come to the United States." Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, said he agreed that Congress needed to raise the H-1B cap. He asked if an annual cap of 300,000 would be appropriate. "It'd be a fantastic improvement," Gate said. "My basic view is we should welcome as many of these people as we can get."
79662
Americans are willing to pay higher taxes to do it, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.
552294
The Bush administration proposed new spending of more than $600 million to tighten U.S. borders with fencing along the frontier with Mexico and add patrol agents and more beds for detained illegal immigrants.
613256
The US government has launched a four-year, $1 billion program to pay some of the emergency room costs of treating illegal immigrants, but it has backed off plans to require hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status.
640856
In an action likely to increase trade tensions with China, the Bush administration reaffirmed its policy of imposing duties on certain imports, paving the way for possible tariff increases.
621076
The move by Bush administration officials could boost America's image abroad, but institutions like the World Bank fear it could leave them strapped for cash.
267285
It would cost at least $94 billion to find, detain and remove all 12 million people believed to be staying illegally in the United States, the federal government estimated Wednesday.