DHS proposes to expand OPTs for foreign students

Date: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 12:28 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1849 -- 4/04/2008 >>>>>

You might be surprised to find out that the H-1B system can be expanded by a
bureaucratic decree -- and no politician will be held accountable. It can be
done with a simple edict by the Dept. of Homeland Security.

In this scenario the number of foreign students who graduate from US
universities that can stay in the U.S. until they find jobs will dramatically
increase. Congress will sit on their thumbs in order to evade responsibility.
This can happen because the Department of Homeland Security is proposing to
change a regulation that would allow the Optional Practical Training program
to increase from 12 months to 29 months. This is a de-facto expansion of the
H-1B visa program because it allows students to work in the U.S. for more than
twice as many months until they get an H-1B visa. In air traffic terminology,
the foreign students are put on a holding pattern until they get an H-1B
visas.

So just why do the "best and brightest" minds in the world need more time to
find jobs? Shouldn't they be able to find jobs way before graduation if they
were as smart as the promoters of this regulatory change claim? The answer of
course is that they are the cheapest minds in the global marketplace, not the
best or brightest.

The OPT expansion is a stab in the back to all American students who are
toiling to get their engineering or science degrees, but of course most young
students are too clueless to understand what is going on, so don't expect
their brainwashed minds to ever comprehend how their future careers are being
undermined. They will probably wonder why they can't seem to get internships,
but they will be unlikely to figure out that they are being swept aside for
foreign students on OPT work authorizations.

In case you are wondering what these foreign students will do with their extra
time, read the second article on the Princeton web site called, "Learning to
grind with American girls".

Guess who gave a Congressional testimony that called for this increase in the
OPT time period? None other than Bill Gates!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/46/35.html

Homeland Agency May Expand High-Skill Foreign Student Stay

A preliminary regulation would extend the time that foreign graduates in
science, technology, engineering or mathematics can work for a U.S. company
without obtaining a visa. This plan would give them a greater opportunity to
obtain an H-1B visa.

April 4, 2008
Homeland Agency May Expand High-Skill Foreign Student Stay In an effort to
help companies hire and retain more highly skilled foreign nationals who
graduate from U.S. universities, the Department of Homeland Security is
proposing to expand a program that would allow them to stay in the country
longer after receiving their degrees.

On Friday, April 4, the agency announced a preliminary regulation extending
the time that foreign graduates in science, technology, engineering or
mathematics can work for a U.S. company without obtaining a visa.

That will give them a greater opportunity to secure an H-1B visa, which is for
people who have at least the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor s degree.
The H-1B cap is likely to be exceeded again this year, forcing spring
graduates to wait until next April to apply.

H-1B opponents criticized the DHS proposal.More criticism may be generated by
a condition in the regulation that mandates that only companies using E-
Verify, a government-run electronic verification system, can participate.

The Society for Human Resource Management and many other HR groups assert that
E-Verify is inefficient, error-prone and could potentially designate many
legal workers as ineligible for employment. They are promoting a bill that
would establish an alternative verification system.

The new DHS regulation is subject to a 60-day comment period. Then DHS can
promulgate a final rule. It s unclear whether the process can be concluded
before the end of the Bush administration.

Under the regulation, the Optional Practical Training program would increase
from 12 months to 29 months. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates called for such a
reform in congressional testimony last month, saying that hiring and retaining
foreign-national graduates is critical to helping technology companies
innovate.

The push for a longer training program is the result of a shortage of H-1B
visas. For the last fiscal year, companies sent in 123,000 applications for
65,000 H-1B visas, exceeding the cap on the first day they were available,
April 2.

Under current law, if a foreign-national hire doesn t get an H-1B visa within
12 months, he or she must leave the United States.

For the 2009 fiscal year, the cap is set again at 65,000, and an even greater
demand is expected. DHS may announce as soon as Monday, April 7, that the cap
has been exceeded and that the visas will be distributed by lottery.

The move to expand the training initiative may ease the disappointment of
companies, especially in the technology sector, who say they can t fill high-
skill jobs.

"It s a good first step," says Robert Hoffman, vice president of government
and public affairs for Oracle and co-chair of Compete America.
"The administration has clearly recognized through this action that there is a
severe skills shortage in this economy."

Hoffman says that there are 140,000 openings at S&P 500 companies for
engineers, scientists and other highly skilled professionals.

But he warned that the DHS regulation alone is not enough. Congress must
increase the number of H-1B and permanent work visas, or green cards. Bills to
do so are mired in a political stalemate on immigration reform.

If Congress doesn t act, "you re going to create one heck of a bottleneck,"
Hoffman says. "You re going to find (that many) more highly skilled
individuals are forced to leave the country."

Opponents of the H-1B program contend that it displaces U.S. workers and
depresses wages. They also criticize the training program expansion.

"It s completely unnecessary," says John Miano, a Summit, New Jersey, lawyer
and computer consultant who founded the Programmers Guild. "Student visas are
not supposed to be the gateway to immigration, but they re being transformed
into that."

Outsourcing companies from India obtain many H-1B visas in order to send
foreign workers to the United States who ultimately take jobs away from U.S.
applicants, Miano says.

Data on the impact of H-1Bs doesn t exist, and Department of Labor enforcement
is limited, according to Miano.

"No one knows what s going on in the system," he says. "There is no ability to
investigate these things."

But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff promoted the extension of the
training program as a way to bolster the U.S. economy.

"This rule will enable businesses to attract and retain highly skilled foreign
workers, giving U.S. companies a competitive advantage in the world economy,"
he said in a statement.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/03/27/20559/

Learning to grind with American girls

By Zoe Buck
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, March 27th, 2008
Correction appended

When Plamen Ivanov '08 first came to the United States from Pleven, Bulgaria,
four years ago, he was surprised by the pink polos that Princetonians wore and
by how the students interacted. "I guess I had a different idea of what cool
was," he said. But the most shocking thing to him was the way the Americans
danced. "Grinding was by far the hardest thing for me to get used to," Ivanov
said. "I still don't understand it. So kissing your lady friends on the cheek
when hugging them is kind of sketchy and sleazy, but grinding with them on the
Street is totally fine?"

There are 470 undergraduates that the Office of Admission categorizes as
"international students." They hail from 91 different countries and make up
about 10 percent of a given class. These students have to face the same
stresses and difficulties as their American counterparts, but they also have
to deal with immigration forms, long distances separating them from friends
and family, and strange American traditions - like grinding.

Though the Office of the Dean of International Students typically only deals
with immigration issues, the pre-orientation program it sponsors every fall
tackles the potential difficulties of interpreting American social customs. A
counselor addresses the students, explaining among other things that Americans
tend to be friendly and animated even if they have no interest in actually
fostering a friendship or a romance. They require more personal space during
friendly interactions than is typical in many other countries and prefer to
shake hands rather than kiss on the cheek. Some social norms that mean certain
things in Europe or Africa may mean something totally different in America.

This year will be the first time that international students will be allowed
to both attend the international pre-orientation and participate in a
Community or Outdoor Action trip. Dean of International Students Rachel
Baldwin said she hopes that this will help them branch out and integrate
themselves into the Princeton community. "[International] students are drawn
toward enclaves of other international students, which is natural,"
she said. Pre-orientation gives them a taste of the community and general
cultural differences, but facing challenges with American freshmen right off
the bat will help to blur the lines that divide international students from
the rest of their class.

"I guess I did seek out groups of international students," said Bronson Fung
'08, a native of Hong Kong. "We all did. It made it easier for us, especially
in the beginning because we can relate to each other."

In his first three years, Ivanov found himself hanging out mostly with
Bulgarians or other kids from the pre-university school he attended, United
World College (UWC) of the Adriatic. The school has 11 other campuses around
the globe. Many international students at Princeton - including Ivanov and
Fung - attended UWC, in large part thanks to the Shelby Davis Scholarship,
which pays 100 percent of the demonstrated financial need of UWC graduates
attending Princeton.

Though Ivanov lives with two other UWC-ers, most of the other Bulgarian
students he knows have graduated, and he has branched out this year. "I think
I have integrated very well in the past few years," he said.
"Break-dancing with Sympoh has helped a lot. I wanted to make more American
friends, but I did not really understand their party logic."

Despite funds like the Davis Scholarship, at least a quarter of international

students remain on campus during a given break. "There are some students who
are very privileged, and some students who really are not, and traveling home
can just be horribly expensive," Baldwin explained.
In some cases the time it takes to travel home and back to Princeton during a
weeklong break would leave less than a day to spend at home. It takes Kieran
Ledwidge '08 20 hours to get home to Sydney, Australia, and once there the
time difference is 15 hours ahead. That's a net loss of a day and a half.

Ivanov said he doesn't mind the distance, though he would like to return to
Bulgaria some day. "What challenges do I face? I guess my accent is the main
thing. People say it's cool, but probably they think I'm stupid or something,
or a criminal," he noted. But being exotic can also be an asset.
"Everyone tells me American girls love accents," Ledwidge joked.

Not all international students find it hard to blend in. Take Delwin Olivan
'08 for example, who is from Vancouver, B.C., and lives less than an hour from
the United States border. "Being from Canada is like getting none of the perks
of being an international student but with all of the annoyances," he said.
"We still get that little extra check when coming in here with our I-20s and
have to deal with all the bureaucracy, but we don't take advantage of the
resources offered to international students on campus because we don't really
need them." Baldwin knows that it is hard for American students to understand
Canadians as international students. "In terms of immigration, however, they
have to deal with all the same issues,"
she said.

And immigration issues loom large. All seniors struggle with the question of
what they will be doing after graduation, but international seniors need to
decide quickly enough to begin the bureaucracy of making it happen.
"There is so much visa drama right now in the room," said Joe Rokicki '08, an
American who lives with three international students in a Spelman suite.
"It's all anyone can talk about. Visa this, visa that."

Every international undergraduate gets something called an OPT (Optional
Practical Training). The OPT extends their time allowed in the United States
by exactly 12 months, time they can use to work. The 12 months can be used at
any time during their four years here. Many students use a good part of their
OPT for summer internships between semesters. Those who wish to stay in the
United States after graduation save as many months of their OPT as possible to
linger in the states for a year after graduation. "I want to use the rest of
my OPT to get a job in New York. But until I get a work visa, I won't be able
to leave the country with any assurance that they'll let me back in to work -
despite having time left on my OPT,"
Ledwidge explained.

The prospect of all this can be very daunting. "Will you marry me?"
Ledwidge joked. "It would make my life so much easier, I can't even tell you."

CORRECTION:

The orginal version of this article stated that the Shelby Davis Scholarship
allows any UWC graduate to attend to Princeton on a full ride, regardless of
need. In fact, the scholarship award is based on financial need, though it is
still available to any UWC alumnus at Princeton. The Daily Princetonian
regrets this error.

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