Tom: OK. We have a couple of members who have e-mailed and
want to get, are really keen to get into Florida.
Their particular situation is that the husband wants to find work
or employment, rather than invest in a business. That's their particular
route right now.
Roy: OK, that used to be my side of immigration. He needs to
get an H1B visa but they are exhausted for 2006. They are taking
applications because there are a limited number of H1B; which is work related
visas. There are no more. All the visas allocated, around 240,000 per year,
have been allocated for 2006.
So you have to file something today to get in line for 2007.
However, you have to be a specialist, you have to be a brain, such as
somebody that can come into this country claiming 'this company is hiring me
because I know how to tie a knot this way, instead of the regular ways.'
Tom: Specialist skills?
Roy: Special skills, professional, internet, inventor,
composer, dancer, things like that.
Now if you get a person like you or me wanting to get a job to be hired as a
chef. This is a chef that knows how to scramble eggs in the UK in a different
way than we do it here, so that's his speciality. I want to hire him because he
knows how to scramble eggs in a different way. I have to advertise your position
with a description of the job, I believe it is, for 8 days straight, so you get
all of the applicants and they don't qualify. But they don't qualify because
their name isn't Tom Cone. They don't qualify because they don't scramble the
eggs like Tom does and you have to document that.
This is great for substance abuse, clinical psychologist with special skills
in substance abuse, in juvenile crime, things like that.
For professors the university has retained a law firm here locally just to
process all the H1B visa's and green cards and all that stuff for the PHD
candidates that graduated. They want to stay here and the university feels they
should hire them. OK, that's dealing with brains because they come over here,
they are paid by their own country, they spend 10 years studying here, all of a
sudden they are brilliant and we want to keep them. We don't want to let them
go.
Those are exceptions and they are granted immediately.
They already have a job, the university is sponsoring them or the company who
hires them is sponsoring them and they guarantee a salary and a job.
Tom: So these members are particularly keen to get some kind
of action in terms of getting over to Florida. And obviously they
can't do anything for 2006 but they can get in the queue for 2007.
Roy: Right.
Tom: So obviously other people will filing like that. Sounds
like it soon runs out...
Roy: It's sort of like... First by the date
that you introduce your paperwork, secondly by the merit that you
bring.
Because if you are from Brown (Ivy League university), you
are going to get that visa immediately.
But if you are a chef or a cook or somebody that is not a speciality, that
does not bring intellectual benefits, brilliance or something like that
of value to this country, you are going to be put in line.
The H1B visa is also adjudicated to migrant workers, picking potatoes
and tomatoes or something like that. But then you are going to be competing with
the migrant workers for a different industry. So there are probably hundreds of
thousands that are applying for that, not too many from Mexico but from other
countries.
You have H1B visas for nurses that's a speciality. Now if he or she is a
nurse, immediately, because there is a shortage of nurses or doctors. However if
you get an H1B visa to work as a doctor, very quickly if you go to one of those
states where there is nobody out, there are no doctors for 300 miles radius and
then you get a job there for a clinic or a city to be the city's health care
provider.
Tom: So what if they were to look at the B1 visa?
Roy: Now the B1 visa allows you to come in for
business and pleasure but not for work.
Tom: Right, but while they were over here they can look
at the opportunities for work. How will they connect with prospective
employers?
Roy: They can do it over the internet, by phone, by letter,
by faxes.
However because of the growth and the volume of emails everybody gets, they
are not taken seriously. Because anyone in human resources, for any
corporation, is getting thousands of resumés and e-mails every month. They don't have
the time to review them.
So you get a B2 visa, come over here and schedule the appointments with human
resources for that company, to pick up a job application, file it and then
follow up.
Or say 'Hey I'm coming from the UK. I would appreciate it if you can
interview me while I'm there, I'm going to be there within this date and that
date give me a half an hour.'
The courtesy is 'Yes, come on in please,' because you are coming in from
another country.
You may be bringing in great assets for the company. I am the human resource
person, I want to hire someone who wants to be here to stay. Because someone
coming from another country is not here to play. So they are serious about it;
moving the whole family. So I'm going to give you an interview.
With the B2 visa, it is perfect to do that because you are applying for a
job.
You cannot get a job until you have the H1B visa.
However if you are going to get a job, let that company sponsor you. If the
company is big enough they are already going to have an immigration attorney or
immigration specialist on retainer to process your application. So he configures
it, he walks it there, he sends it to Texas and 14 - 21 days later you will
receive your H1B visa.
In order for you to get the H1B visa as an employee, the employer has to be
registered with the Department of Justice. They have to have a number,
an ID number, as an employer for H1B visas.
So the application is very simple when you compare it to L1 or L2 or B or E
visas. Very simple... very economical... very quick.
But the employer has to be registered with the Department of
Justice.
You can say 'Hey there is an engineer from Rolls Royce who wants to work
for McDonald Douglas. We need this guy, period. We are not going to contest this
guy. We are not going to compete the guy with anyone in the United States
here. He's teh guy. He gets the job and we are going to pay
him $40,50,100,000 a year.'
Now, what is the wife going to do?
The wife is going to be an H1B dependent. She is going to get an
authorization to work. It is filed at the same time as the H1B visa for the
husband or vice versa. Then she can get a job, anywhere.
With the E2 visa, the E2 holder cannot work for anybody but his company but
the wife can work for anybody.
So if this is the e-mail: that somebody, husband and wife, wanted to come
over here to get a job but the wife, if they don't have the money to buy a
business, they can set one up if he gets a job. They can build a business
then bail out of their employment and work for their own business. That's a
formula that will work as well.
Tom: It seems to me that rather than come over on the waiver
it is safer all around to come on the B2.
Roy: Yes. Do not come on a waiver to look for a
job.
That's looking for problems, big problems.
'What kind of visa do you have?'
'I have a tourist visa.'
'You are a tourist; you are not a job seeker.'
Tom: So it gives all the right signals to the prospective
employer, to take you serious. Then they look at what you've been
doing with progression to the next step, it's all coherent.
Roy: Yes. It's within the letter of the law, you are not
border-lining.
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