US Immigration News

In the largest demonstration in California's history, well over half a million people marched through downtown Los Angeles on Saturday March 25, in defence of immigrant rights and to protest the government attacks on immigrants, especially undocumented workers.

The demonstration was the culmination of two weeks of protest demonstrations against new US immigration legislation, passed by the House of Representatives and scheduled to be taken up Monday by the US Senate.

The US is suffering from a nursing shortage, with employers and educators resorting to all sorts of tricks to attract and keep nursing staff.

In Spartanbury, South Carolina, nurses are eagerly logging onto computers to bid for extra paid shifts, the way collectors scout for bargains on e-Bay.

US Citizenship and Immigration services will begin accepting petitions for H-1B visas for workers for the US fiscal year beginning 2007 on the first of April. The visas are sure to be snapped up quickly as current laws only allow 65,000 H-1Bs to be issued each year.

The allocation of H-1B visas last year had reached its quota by August, two months before the start of the fiscal year and the cap this fiscal year will be reached even sooner.

Lobbying for an increase in the number of H-1B visas, Microsoft chief Bill Gates has called high-skilled immigration the "number one thing" that the software giant needs. He called it "ironic" that Indians have to return to their homeland due to US visa shortages, despite graduating from American computer science institutions.

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced in February 2006 that it will allow a student and her/his dependants to obtain their visas 120 days in advance of the start of the academic program.

US senators crafting a comprehensive immigration reform bill complained on March 15 that a deadline set by Majority Leader Bill Frist could hurt the chances for a guest worker program.

Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee say they need additional time to consider many difficult issues, including include guest workers and the disposition of 11 million immigrants who are in this country illegally.

"This is a complicated bill. We've got to do it right," said committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.