From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sat Aug 16 2008 - 15:57:50 EDT
New US visa rules may hit temporary workers from India
Saturday August 16 2008 21:39 IST
WASHINGTON: US immigration authorities have sought a number of rule
changes for hiring temporary non-agricultural workers under the H-2B
visa programme that may affect nationals from India.
The changes proposed by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS) among other things seek to deny H-2B visas to 'nationals of
countries that are determined to be consistently refusing or
unreasonably delaying repatriation' of workers under deportation orders.
India, China and Iran are among eight countries, which have been
identified by lawmakers early this year as falling in this category.
Other countries are Laos, Eritrea, Vietnam, Jamaica and Ethiopia.
The eight counties are said to have refused to repatriate a total of
over 139,000 workers. Of this number more than 18,000 are said to be
convicted criminals who have been released back into the streets.
The proposed plans for revision of rules for the H-2B programme are
based on suggestions made by US lawmakers. Early this year, three
Republican legislators had called for the suspension of visas to
countries that have refused to accept deported nationals from the US.
The H-2B non-immigrant temporary worker programme allows US employers to
bring foreign nationals to America to fill non-agricultural temporary
jobs for which US workers are not available and India is one of the
countries from where workers are sought.
USCIS will accept public comments for 30 days following publication of
the proposed changes.
The proposed rule is designed to remove unnecessary limitations on H-2B
employers while both preventing fraud and abuse and protecting the
rights of temporary workers, the USCIS announcement said.
These changes would reduce from six months to three months the time H-2B
workers must wait outside the US before they are eligible to re-obtain
status under the H or L classification.
They would also require employer attestations on the scope of the H-2B
employment and the use of recruiters to locate H-2B workers and seek a
crack down on employers and recruiters who impose fees on prospective
workers in connection with or as a condition of an offer of employment.
Other changes require an approved temporary labour certification in
connection with all H-2B petitions preclude, with limited exception, the
change of the employment start date after the grant of such
certification and require employers to notify the Department of Homeland
Security when H-2B workers fail to show up for work, are terminated, or
abscond from the work site.
They would also change the definition of 'temporary employment' to
provide that a job is of a temporary nature when the work will end in
the near, definable future and to eliminate the requirement that
employers show 'extraordinary circumstances' to be eligible to hire H-2B
workers where a one-time need for the workers is longer than one year
but shorter than three years.
A land-border exit system pilot programme would be established. This
would require H-2B workers admitted through a port of entry
participating in the pilot H-programme to also depart through a
participating port and to present designated biographic and/or biometric
information upon departure.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEL20080816213919
<http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEL20080816213919&Page=L&Ti
tle=World&Topic=0> &Page=L&Title=World&Topic=0
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