Indian professionals can move to Canada and avoid 15 year wait for USA green cards
Roughly an additional 75,000 employment-based green cards, or permanent resident visas, which were allotted to foreign professionals in the U.S. in fiscal year 2021, expire today.
Also, earlier this week, the Democratic Party failed in its second effort to include U.S. immigration reform as part of an economic bill. The measure would have enabled an estimated 6.7 million foreigners, who entered the U.S. before 2010, both legal and illegal immigrants, to be eligible for green cards. Under the current law, only those foreigners who came to the U.S. before 1972, are automatically eligible for green cards.
As a result, thousands of Indian professionals, on temporary work visas in the U.S. and who were expected to get 90% of the additional employment-based green cards, will have to wait longer for their green cards - currently a 15-year wait.
Foreign professionals, hired in the U.S., initially work on temporary employment-based visas, mainly H-1B visas issued to those with advanced skills. The original intent for these visas was to meet a shortage of highly skilled labor in the U.S., mainly engineers, doctors and math and science graduates.
Since 2004, the number of H-1B visas issued annually by the U.S. to foreigners have been capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for students with a Master’s or Ph.D. degree from a university in the U.S.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the government agency which issues visas, does not disclose the total number of foreigners working in the U.S. on H-1B visas. The estimates range from 600,000 to 800,000 foreigners. Roughly half of them are estimated to be from India.
In 2020, nearly a quarter of the 85,000 H-1B visa recipients worked for 17 outsourcing companies, mainly Indian firms including Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and other Indian outsourcing companies. The outsourcing companies directly employ some of these professionals and place the rest as temporary contract workers at major U.S. companies.
The USCIS requires employers to file papers showing that a foreign employee they are hiring on an H-1B visa, and those awaiting green cards, are being paid the same as employees with similar qualifications and duties.
Yet, numerous studies point out that a major reason employers hire foreign workers on temporary employment visas is to pay wages far lower than what they pay American citizens and those with green cards. In 2016, for instance, Cisco was able to reduce its annual wage costs by an estimated $135 million, by sub-contracting work to Indian outsourcing companies, at just one of its office complexes in Silicon Valley, according to data from a Bloomberg study.
Lobbyists for associations of American engineers and IT workers, the media and politicians criticize Indian outsourcing companies for displacing Americans with cheaper staff brought in from India. This criticism is unfair since it is the American companies who fire employees to cut costs and improve profits. The Indian companies are merely fulfilling the demand for less expensive skilled labor from companies in the U.S.
The H-1B employment-based visas last for three years and can be renewed once for another three years. Those on temporary work visas may have to work long hours, irrespective of working conditions, or risk being fired and having to leave the U.S.
At the end of six years, if an employer does not sponsor a foreign employee for a green card, he or she has to leave the U.S. and wait a year before seeking another H-1B visa. If an employee is sponsored for a green card, they can continue working in the U.S., but only with the employer who filed papers in support of their green card application.
If an employee quits and finds another job in the U.S., the new employer has to file papers to support a new green card application. Typically, professionals avoid changing jobs since they will lose their place in line for a green card and be moved to the end of the line.
Once a professional gets a green card, he or she is free to work at any company in the U.S. So, the employer is likely to lose the professional, especially if the wages they pay those on temporary work visas is lower than the market wage. So, neither U.S. employers nor Indian outsourcing companies have any interest in lobbying for more green cards to be issued to Indian professionals who work for them on temporary visas.
Foreigners are also eager to get a green card so that their spouse and children can work in the U.S. and their children can attend public schools without hindrance. A green card also enables the holder to travel freely outside the U.S. as well as qualify for U.S. citizenship after five years.
There are over 1.7 million foreign professionals awaiting green cards. Each year, the USCIS grants 140,000 employment-based green cards. This number is unlikely to be raised, given the opposition of many Democratic and Republican law makers as well as lobbying groups.
Indians are estimated to make up roughly half of all foreigners awaiting employment-based green cards. Their wait exceeds 15 years because those from India are eligible for only 7% of the green cards issued each year, which is the birth country maximum quota allotted to each country. This number is unlikely to be raised due to strong opposition from lobbying groups and law makers, with ties to the countries which may see a reduction in their annual green card quotas if Indians are granted more green cards.
Instead of waiting fifteen years, or longer, for a green card, Indian professionals in the U.S. – as well as students in India considering taking on loans to study at U.S. universities - should migrate to Canada. The chances of getting a work visa and permanent residency, especially for engineering, technology and science graduates, are very good; in fact, those with advanced skills can get a permanent resident visa in a few months.
Canada faces a shortage of skilled labor and also has a population which is rapidly aging. Equally important, American and other companies, seeking to bypass the visa restrictions in the U.S., are expanding their operations and hiring in Canada.
This year, for instance, Infosys, an Indian information technology services company with a market value of $100 billion, said it is expanding its operations in Calgary and the Toronto region, expecting to double its Canadian workforce to 4,000 by 2023.