When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that there will be severe cuts in services because of the budget crisis in the State of California, almost all businesses were affected. Even the health care industry was severely distressed by the budget cuts. Most Americans whose health care was subsidized by the State will have to put up with the budget adjustments.
Aurora, a long time Filipino caregiver for 80 year old Mr. Smith, was recently terminated from her job since the family of Mr. Smith is no longer capable of paying for the home health care costs without additional subsidy from the State. Mr. Smith will have to be transferred to a home care facility. Aurora is now having difficulty finding a new job.
Health care workers are just one of the many groups affected by the economic crisis. There are many more immigrants and intending immigrants undergoing difficulties.
Financial Losses of US Businesses
Before the crisis, many businesses were flourishing and that several foreign workers were petitioned by US businesses to work in their enterprise. This year is different. In the past few years, the professional working H1B visas cap used to be reached in one day from the date of its availability on April 1. Many US employers then rushed to file H1B visas for their foreign workers before the cap is reached. In fact, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services return excess petitions after the cap is met by randomly selecting from all the petitions that are filed.
For this Fiscal Year 2010, when the H1B visa filing began on April 1, 2009, the number of petitions filed did not reach the cap yet. As of this writing there are still H1B visas available. According the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, there are approximately 45,500 H1B petitions received counting toward the Congressionally mandated 65,000 cap. This means that the USCIS is still accepting petitions for H1B visas. The fact that there are still available H1B visas this time of the year means that the economy is really bad that no US businesses are petitioning workers. It also means that the immigration policy of limiting visas by setting a cap on the number of visas is counterproductive because it is actually the economy that controls the flow of immigrant visas without need for restrictive immigration policy.
Petitioner’s Losing Jobs
For petitions by US citizens and lawful permanent residents for their immediate relatives, there are also repercussions in view of the current crisis. Many immigrants are losing their jobs, their homes and for some their health condition is affected by the hardships encountered.
In order to petition for a child, spouse or parent, the petitioner must have the financial capacity to support the relatives they are petitioning. With unemployment on the rise, many petitioners are not able to execute Affidavits of Support as part of the visa processing of their relatives. It must be emphasized, though, that even if the US citizen or lawful permanent resident is declared bankrupt, has bad credit, or is unemployed, the visa petition may still be filed and processed as long as there is a joint sponsor willing to execute the Affidavit of Support.
Changes in Hiring Policies
For health care professionals, especially registered nurses ,who are waiting for visas to become available, there are increasing number of instances where the US petitioner suffer financial reversals and are unable to hire future employees. Those who are waiting for retrogression to be lifted and are waiting for their visas to become available must check regularly with their petitioner or employer whether their job offer is still open. This will allow the beneficiary/registered nurse to take appropriate step of finding new petitioners in the event that there are changes in the circumstances of their present employer.
Timely Immigration Reform
Economic advisers to the Obama administration argue that, at this time, there are benefits of enacting legislation that will fix the current immigration system. Immigration reform is an economic necessity and a net gain to the US economy according to leading economists. The White House Council of Economic Advisors all recognize that immigration reform is an economic necessity that improves wages and working conditions for all workers, increases tax revenues for the government and enables newly legalized workers to spend more on American goods.
No one seemed to be spared from the economic downturn. The immigrants are severely affected because of businesses closing and petitioners’ losing their employment and are suffering financial difficulties. However, we all know that this is just a ‘temporary’ situation and soon the economic situation will improve. This economic crisis and its resulting hardship should be an eye opener to all including policy makers who will soon establish immigration policies that are more humane and compassionate in nature. There is still hope.
(Tancinco may be reached at law@tancinco.com or at 887-7177)
