This is a really dumb policy, IMO...
yahoo.reuters.com
Tight visa rules hurt U.S. business, companies say
Mon Nov 29, 2004 04:48 PM ET
By Wei Gu
NEW YORK, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Tightened border security has tripped up business plans in ways that threaten to hurt U.S. companies, and that problem has only been getting worse three years after Sept. 11, companies and immigration lawyers said.
For example, a high-profile China Business Summit organized by Dow Jones & Co. (DJ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Harvard University for this week was abruptly canceled because key people from China were not able to obtain visas in time.
About five to ten people from China had to drop out at the last minute, according to spokesman Julian Chang at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, who declined to name those who were unable to book their trips.
"While interest in the summit remains high, travel and visa complexities prevented many key speakers and delegates from attending the event," a statement posted on Dow Jones Conferences' website said.
Speakers scheduled for the China summit included the chief financial officer of China's largest computer maker Lenovo Group (0992.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) , Mary Ma, and the general manager of China's leading beverage producer Wahaha Group, Zong Qinghou.
In the past, Chinese officers holding business passports did not need to appear in person for visas, but now the United States is insisting they appear.
"If they are CFOs and CEOs of companies, it's clear that no one is going to come and stay -- they only want to visit and do their business," said Freddi Weintraub, a lawyer at the world's leading immigration law firm, Fragomen, DelRey, Bernsen & Loewy.
"I think the bar has been set too high," Weintraub added. "This results in loss of revenue in the U.S."
In addition to visitors, Washington has also made it more difficult for U.S. companies to hire foreign nationals.
Special work visas, called H-1Bs, have been used to recruit foreign nationals, from programmers to actors.
Congress raised the cap on H-1B visas to 195,000 a year for the financial years ending in 2001 to 2003, but reduced it to 65,000 for fiscal years 2004 and 2005. That limit was reached in one day in the current year.
Congress has agreed to exempt from the limit 20,000 foreign students with degrees of masters or higher from U.S. universities, but lobbyists said that is far from enough.
"It's counterproductive to educate these students and then force them abroad to compete against us," said Sandra Boyd, Chairwoman of CompeteAmerica alliance, a lobbying group.
More than half of the post-graduate degrees in U.S. universities in math, science and engineering are awarded to foreign nationals, according to Compete America.
Two dozen U.S. chief executives, including Steve Ballmer of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Craig Barrett of Intel Corp. (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) urged Congress in a letter dated Nov. 10 to end the quota system.
Semiconductor makers like Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) are highly dependent on foreign electrical engineers.
"If 70 percent of the people you can hire are foreign nationals, you have to hire them, it's a big competitive issue," said Paula Collins, Texas Instrument's director of government affairs.
Companies say they might be enticed to send work abroad if they cannot find enough qualified workers in the United States. "If we cannot get them to come to us, then we will go to them," said Christopher Lockheed, chief marketing officer of software maker Mercury Interactive (MERQ.O: Quote, Profile, Research). |
