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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"></TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt_89 <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>7:21 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>38389.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Sep 4, 2010
Entry Denied
Tough visa policy in US
<!-- by line -->By Tracy Quek , US Correspondent
http://www.straitstimes.com/World/Story/STIStory_574706.html
<!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar --><!-- story content : start -->
WASHINGTON: Widely travelled, well educated and entrepreneurial, Ms Karen Ong is the kind of professional many countries hope to attract.
Born in the Philippines, the 28-year-old had worked for a multinational company in Singapore before moving to the United States for further studies. She graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School, and founded an education firm based in Boston.
Both Singapore and the US are conducive to building careers and businesses, but Singapore's open immigration policies make living and working there much easier for foreigners like her, she said.
Applying for a Singapore work visa in 2003 was a breeze, recalled the CEO of Learning International, which helps to match students with language courses around the world. Likewise, her application for permanent residence two years later was equally 'painless'.
Her experience in the US, however, has not been as smooth. Obtaining visas to live and work here long-term, and to bring in foreign staff, has been a 'costly headache', she added.
'It's crazy,' she said of the tight quotas on temporary work visas and long waits for permanent resident passes, or green cards. 'Instead of focusing on my business, I'm worrying about my personal as well as employees' immigration issues.'
Ms Ong now holds an H-1B temporary work visa issued to high-skilled workers, but is already fretting over what she should do when her visa expires in 2014.
'If I can't find a viable solution, my hope is that my firm becomes successful quickly, is bought over, and then I'll head back to Singapore where it's so much easier to stay,' she told The Straits Times.
Thousands of high-skilled foreign professionals share Ms Ong's frustrations with the US' restrictive immigration and visa policies.
Many face similar predicaments that force them to cut short or give up their plans in the US and head home or elsewhere to work.
It is a situation that is increasingly detrimental to the growth and vibrancy of the US economy, say experts.
In particular, they criticise the limiting of foreign student visas, imposing of caps on temporary work visas for high-skilled workers and failure to reduce the long wait for green cards.
'The US has done a lot in the past decade to discourage highly skilled workers from coming to and remaining in the US,' said Mr Edward Alden, an expert on immigration at the Council on Foreign Relations.
As a consequence, he added, the US is losing the very people it needs most for its economy, particularly in its most innovative sectors.
'And innovation is an edge the US cannot afford to lose,' he noted.
Few in the US would disagree that the current immigration system is out of step with the needs of the country's economy. Many, however, disagree over how best to go about fixing it.
The total foreign-born or immigrant population now makes up about 12.5 per cent of the overall US population of some 310 million people.
Of the foreign-born population, an estimated 11.1 million are in the country illegally. The US approves about one million legal immigrants every year.
In his book, Brain Drain, Rethinking US Immigration Policy, Dr Darrell West of the Brookings Institution noted that the flood of illegal immigrants has 'enraged many native-born residents who believe that immigrants compete for jobs, unfairly draw on government benefits and fundamentally alter the social fabric of America'.
Critics of the H-1B visa say that while it is meant to bring in highly skilled workers, it effectively allows cheap immigrant labour to enter the US, taking jobs away from qualified American workers.
But others, like big US technology companies such as Microsoft, say the tight quota on this visa keeps them from competing effectively in the global marketplace for top talent.
The H-1B visa for foreign workers in speciality fields such as scientific research, information technology and science is only for degree holders.
Only about 65,000 of the visas are issued each year, with an additional 20,000 reserved for postgraduates of US colleges.
'The US is not very strategic about thinking about immigration,' said Dr West.
'Many other countries use it for economic purposes and to rebuild parts of the economy where they need help. The US has not done that.'
But in sorting out the immigration issue, the government has to tread care-fully.
Over the past two years, the recession and the almost 10 per cent jobless rate have heightened anti-immigration sentiments against foreign workers at both ends of the skills spectrum, experts said.
Despite attempts by politicians, including President Barack Obama, to push for reform, scant progress has been made.
'This is an issue that tends to be very divisive and emotional,' said Mr Marshall Fitz, director of immigration policy at the Centre for American Progress.
'It doesn't cut cleanly across party lines and it's one that requires bipartisanship at a time when bipartisanship is very hard to find.'
But the need for reform is an urgent one. Analysts note that while the US is making it more difficult for high-skilled foreigners to come in and stay, other nations, from China to Canada, are throwing their doors wide open for the world's best and brightest to help build up their own technology and innovation industries.
According to Mr Vivek Wadhwa, a senior research associate with the Labour and Worklife Programme at Harvard Law School, the US' unfavourable immigration policies have resulted in tens of thousands of skilled workers returning home in recent years.
'The US is making skilled workers feel unwelcome,' he said. 'In four years, I predict you will see hundreds of start-ups in countries such as China and India becoming spectacular successes to challenge US companies such as Google and Microsoft. The US will face intense competition from abroad.'
To be sure, the government has been trying. While there has not been a comprehensive overhaul, lawmakers have made attempts to introduce more flexibility and efficiency into the current system.
At least three Bills have been proposed by Republican and Democratic legislators to ease the way for high-skilled foreigners to come in and stay.
These are small changes that Ms Ong hopes will happen soon.
'Immigrant entrepreneurs have been the lifeblood of the US economy,' she said. 'The country should do more to encourage and support people like us.'
[email protected]
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Entry Denied
Tough visa policy in US
<!-- by line -->By Tracy Quek , US Correspondent
http://www.straitstimes.com/World/Story/STIStory_574706.html
<!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar --><!-- story content : start -->
WASHINGTON: Widely travelled, well educated and entrepreneurial, Ms Karen Ong is the kind of professional many countries hope to attract.
Born in the Philippines, the 28-year-old had worked for a multinational company in Singapore before moving to the United States for further studies. She graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School, and founded an education firm based in Boston.
Both Singapore and the US are conducive to building careers and businesses, but Singapore's open immigration policies make living and working there much easier for foreigners like her, she said.
Applying for a Singapore work visa in 2003 was a breeze, recalled the CEO of Learning International, which helps to match students with language courses around the world. Likewise, her application for permanent residence two years later was equally 'painless'.
Her experience in the US, however, has not been as smooth. Obtaining visas to live and work here long-term, and to bring in foreign staff, has been a 'costly headache', she added.
'It's crazy,' she said of the tight quotas on temporary work visas and long waits for permanent resident passes, or green cards. 'Instead of focusing on my business, I'm worrying about my personal as well as employees' immigration issues.'
Ms Ong now holds an H-1B temporary work visa issued to high-skilled workers, but is already fretting over what she should do when her visa expires in 2014.
'If I can't find a viable solution, my hope is that my firm becomes successful quickly, is bought over, and then I'll head back to Singapore where it's so much easier to stay,' she told The Straits Times.
Thousands of high-skilled foreign professionals share Ms Ong's frustrations with the US' restrictive immigration and visa policies.
Many face similar predicaments that force them to cut short or give up their plans in the US and head home or elsewhere to work.
It is a situation that is increasingly detrimental to the growth and vibrancy of the US economy, say experts.
In particular, they criticise the limiting of foreign student visas, imposing of caps on temporary work visas for high-skilled workers and failure to reduce the long wait for green cards.
'The US has done a lot in the past decade to discourage highly skilled workers from coming to and remaining in the US,' said Mr Edward Alden, an expert on immigration at the Council on Foreign Relations.
As a consequence, he added, the US is losing the very people it needs most for its economy, particularly in its most innovative sectors.
'And innovation is an edge the US cannot afford to lose,' he noted.
Few in the US would disagree that the current immigration system is out of step with the needs of the country's economy. Many, however, disagree over how best to go about fixing it.
The total foreign-born or immigrant population now makes up about 12.5 per cent of the overall US population of some 310 million people.
Of the foreign-born population, an estimated 11.1 million are in the country illegally. The US approves about one million legal immigrants every year.
In his book, Brain Drain, Rethinking US Immigration Policy, Dr Darrell West of the Brookings Institution noted that the flood of illegal immigrants has 'enraged many native-born residents who believe that immigrants compete for jobs, unfairly draw on government benefits and fundamentally alter the social fabric of America'.
Critics of the H-1B visa say that while it is meant to bring in highly skilled workers, it effectively allows cheap immigrant labour to enter the US, taking jobs away from qualified American workers.
But others, like big US technology companies such as Microsoft, say the tight quota on this visa keeps them from competing effectively in the global marketplace for top talent.
The H-1B visa for foreign workers in speciality fields such as scientific research, information technology and science is only for degree holders.
Only about 65,000 of the visas are issued each year, with an additional 20,000 reserved for postgraduates of US colleges.
'The US is not very strategic about thinking about immigration,' said Dr West.
'Many other countries use it for economic purposes and to rebuild parts of the economy where they need help. The US has not done that.'
But in sorting out the immigration issue, the government has to tread care-fully.
Over the past two years, the recession and the almost 10 per cent jobless rate have heightened anti-immigration sentiments against foreign workers at both ends of the skills spectrum, experts said.
Despite attempts by politicians, including President Barack Obama, to push for reform, scant progress has been made.
'This is an issue that tends to be very divisive and emotional,' said Mr Marshall Fitz, director of immigration policy at the Centre for American Progress.
'It doesn't cut cleanly across party lines and it's one that requires bipartisanship at a time when bipartisanship is very hard to find.'
But the need for reform is an urgent one. Analysts note that while the US is making it more difficult for high-skilled foreigners to come in and stay, other nations, from China to Canada, are throwing their doors wide open for the world's best and brightest to help build up their own technology and innovation industries.
According to Mr Vivek Wadhwa, a senior research associate with the Labour and Worklife Programme at Harvard Law School, the US' unfavourable immigration policies have resulted in tens of thousands of skilled workers returning home in recent years.
'The US is making skilled workers feel unwelcome,' he said. 'In four years, I predict you will see hundreds of start-ups in countries such as China and India becoming spectacular successes to challenge US companies such as Google and Microsoft. The US will face intense competition from abroad.'
To be sure, the government has been trying. While there has not been a comprehensive overhaul, lawmakers have made attempts to introduce more flexibility and efficiency into the current system.
At least three Bills have been proposed by Republican and Democratic legislators to ease the way for high-skilled foreigners to come in and stay.
These are small changes that Ms Ong hopes will happen soon.
'Immigrant entrepreneurs have been the lifeblood of the US economy,' she said. 'The country should do more to encourage and support people like us.'
[email protected]
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
