As the United States is poised for elections later this year the
debate on immigration and citizenship continues to rage. The
focus is on the millions of undocumented immigrants in the US with
the Democrats wanting a path to citizenship and the Republicans
opposing it. This is a matter that is not going to be
resolved any time soon, but more than this what is affecting U.S.
businesses is lack of qualified workers in some specific fields and
the long wait time for many skilled workers who have been approved
for green cards.
Many foreign workers are in the U.S. in H-1B status. There
is a total numeric cap of 65,000 H-1B visas each year and an
additional 20,000 for those with an advanced U.S. degree.
This cap is applied cumulatively across all countries.
However, the green cards, which are also subject to overall annual
caps also have a per country cap of 7% of the total number of visas
that can be allotted in a particular category. For example
the EB-2 and EB-3
