NC corporations need top foreign talent. To get it, the US must fix this visa program | Opinion

The time has come to reform the U.S. legal immigration system for highly educated foreign professionals. Legal immigration has been overshadowed by the political and public obsession with illegal immigration. Unfortunately, this diversion is weakening the ability of the U.S. to compete globally for top STEM talent.

The visa program for specialized occupation foreign workers is called H-1B. It is highly regulated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The program is designed to augment the U.S. workforce in industries where it is hard to find qualified professionals, such as high tech, engineering and energy. Typically, qualified H-1B visa holders have at least a bachelor’s degree from a U.S. university or an equivalent degree from a foreign university.

Currently, there is a limit of 85,000 H-1B “cap-subject” visas per year. (Generally, cap-subject visas are those issued to for-profit companies.) Of the 85,000 available, 65,000 visas are for foreign workers who meet the education and skill requirements, and 20,000 are for those who’ve earned a U.S. master’s degree or higher. This limit has not changed since 2004.

Of the current 132 million full-time U.S. workers, 85,000 is an insignificant number but an important source of top talent.

There has been a steady and substantial increase in registrations for H-1B cap-subject visas since 2020 — almost a 400% increase. This year, there were approximately 781,000 registrations, which was reduced to approximately 759,000 once duplicate, non-payment and deleted registrations were removed. That number was then reduced to the 85,000 limit through a lottery selection process.

Obviously, the majority of the eligible applicants are not selected.

There are several reasons for the registration increase. It’s partly driven by the design of the registration program. All that is required is to register is to answer a few questions about the company and foreign worker and pay a $10 registration fee.

This small fee and simple process incentivizes companies to enter many registrations with minimal time and money spent. In fact, it also incentives fraud by allowing unscrupulous companies to enter multiple registrations for the same employee through related or “sister” companies with common ownership or collusion. This clearly undermines the system and penalizes companies and foreign employees who comply with the law.

USCIS understands this and is looking into ways to make the H-1B registration and selection process more fair. As an attorney who specializes in immigration law, here are some fixes I think USCIS should make:

▪ Increase the registration fee. Increasing the fee would reduce the number of prospective and duplicate registrants. It would also provide USCIS with additional non-taxpayer revenue, which could be invested in its infrastructure. The $10 registration fee provided approximately $7.5 million in revenue this year. If the fee was $250 and there were 100,000 registrants, USCIS would collect $25 million in revenue.

▪ Restrict duplicate registrations. By using personal identifying data, the system could better determine a duplicate entry and not allow it.

▪ Retain foreign individuals who earned a U.S. masters or higher degree and work with a U.S. company through a training program. Also allow those with master’s and higher STEM degrees who’ve been unsuccessful in the lottery for three years to be automatically added to the pool of H-1B recipients and increase the 20,000 cap limit on those with a U.S. master’s degree.

▪ Require the sponsoring company to pay the registration fee to ensure the financial burden is on the company, not the individual. This is consistent with the legal requirement of companies paying for all H-1B related costs.

▪ Sanction companies who violate registration regulations with non-financial penalties.

It is crucial USCIS fixes the H-1B program quickly so the US can continue to attract and retain top foreign talent.