Tuesday, August 9, 2011

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  • hiralal
    06-05 07:01 AM
    Now, what would really be effective is for our own people that are already naturalized and integrated and assimilated and digested in the US system to stand up for our cause.
    ------------
    I agree with bajrangbali :D ...money, dollars, gold and green cards will shower from the sky, all men will have 5 wives (add your own dreams here ..), etc etc before you see our own people (i.e. other legal immigrants) stand up for our cause. there maybe exceptions but most / many will be happy to see us leave !!!
    as the famous saying goes ..you have come alone in this world ..do your work alone and don't depend or expect anything from others





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  • chanduv23
    06-26 12:39 PM
    There is possibility that retrogression begins in August. The USCIS maail department will acept only those cases the clerk could manually enter into the system by July 31st and then send all those applications back which he could not enter manually

    IV Roumor thread - lets give the 'Best roumour of the day' award to the most convincing roumor .....


    :D :D :D :D





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  • bskrishna
    07-23 11:46 AM
    I have seen nos upto 25k per month. So depends on how many resources are working on this as to the naturalization apps...





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  • karthkc
    07-23 01:01 PM
    I posted this message on another thread and got slammed - :confused:. All the discussions here are just speculations.. no one really has access to real numbers.. so take it easy this time :p

    As we do not have any real numbers my predictions are based on EB2 numbers from (assuming the data to be a true random sample)

    Here are number of EB2-I I485 pending cases by year

    2007-100
    2006-150
    2005-125
    2004-200
    2003-50 (250 have been approved)

    USCIS has approved about 450 EB2-I cases last year. A conservative estimate of approval rate going forward would be 30 cases per month. Based on this the movement..
    2003 cases will be approved by Sep '08
    2004 cases by Apr '09
    2005 cases by Sep '09
    2006 cases by Dec '09

    Good Luck !!!

    This does not make sense at all.. cases are a miniscule portion of actual USCIS approvals and a rate of 30 cases per month would mean most of USCIS personnel are on vacation for summer :)



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  • vdlrao
    07-22 01:45 PM
    Here's an Apr-2006 EB2-I approval posted today on Murthy forum:

    http://murthyforum.atinfopop.com/4/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=1024039761&f=1474093861&m=8351049171


    Please post the priorirty date of EB2 India/China approvals along with the approval date information, in the following thread ,for EB2 India/china approvals from Aug 2008 bulletin released date(Jul 11th).

    I know they will approve pending EB2 India/China applications which they process even before Aug 1st 2008.

    Please post the approvals information in the following thread and update the IV Tracker so that it would be informative(helpful) for all of us.

    http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20230&highlight=vdlrao





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  • JA1HIND
    02-13 04:51 PM
    Why should we give big bucks to big names? Instead we can pay 50% to 75% of that to a bunch of fresh law school grads from Harvard or some other top law school and see what they can do?
    This way we would help young talent and also give them a platform to get their name in the front and at the same time we are not under cutting on their fees. Saving money but cutting unnecessary cost is the name of the game.

    Any thoughs or counter arguments?

    I liked your concept of approaching "fresh law school grads" but...
    If we are planning to approach with such a big task which I would think needs lot of experience in the law field and not sure if its worth taking an approach with fresh out of law school grads...I personally feel this experiment of working with fresh law school grads might be risky and I doubt if they even know any in's & out's of USCIS tricks,rules and dramas which they keep changing now & then quite often....

    As always experience counts one would choose to see how much experience they have and in this case if we go with these BRAND NEW.. fresh out of law school grads who may or many not have any winning track records might be not worth it I guess..



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  • dummgelauft
    06-15 09:15 PM
    I am certainly hoping that I will get by EOY 2011. It's more than hope, I feel pretty confident that by that time I should get it. Just mark my words, come back on dec 31, 2011 and check with me. You have to believe before you get it. Have faith guys. Sooner or later the man who wins is the one who thinks he can!!!!

    NNReddy, good for you if you believe this.
    I myself find it hard to do so. Infact, I envy your optimism.





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  • Macaca
    06-27 08:02 AM
    So are you saying that we could have possible retrogression effective from any day in July?

    In the absence (to our knowledge) of USCIS URL, it is not possoble to say that dates can not retrogress in the middle of a month. For example, USCIS has no rule of time period between switching jobs. This means they can do whatever they feel like.

    I am saying that 2007 GCs can get exhausted at any time independent of I-485s received/approved.



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  • hiralal
    08-16 07:38 AM
    I am a patriotic Indian. Why the hell cant this Khan guy go through the same ordeal as an ordinary Indian or any other passenger. Why all the fuss? Is he god??? Hell NO...I would just tell him to shut up and carry on with life. He is an idiot and just doing this for more publicity. How many Indian muslims go through this shit everyday? Why cant he tolerate this 2 hr ordeal like an ordinary Indian muslim or for that matter hindu? Racial profiling is for everyone who is colored and non-US citizen. He is not a good guy as he cant even take a 2 hr ordeal as an ordinary citizen because he thinks he is GOD...when in fact he is as ordinary as anybody. Just because he has money, name and fame should be become god? no way. I dont mind if the Indian airport security frisked Tom Cruise or any other actor. Who cares!! Its our countrys security, but you know what India wont do that as all the airport officials incl. security are so corrupt and also if they see white skin they will just allow them freely thinking they are god!! thats our stupidity not the americans???

    I am glad this happened to the so called "King Khan" as he is king only in his mind. Not for me because for me he is a talented actor other than that he is not GOD but just a mere human being..
    I sort of agree with the above - why all this fuss - it should be an eye opener to him that he is a human after all. maybe he should become more charitable to poor Indians like hollywood stars are if he wants to earn my respect. there is too much of hero worship in India and they sort of think themselves as god (it is not just SRK but even cricketers like Tendulkar etc - they are just not charitable like steve waugh etc)

    Read SRK's latest comment "'King' Khan stunned the large number of Indian-Americans when he told them that he does not feel like stepping on the American soil any more, but it is the love and affection of millions of his fans in the US which would bring him to this country again and again. "

    it is like saying - I don't like Cake - I hate it --- but I will eat it again and again --hopefully he will face ordeal like this again and again :D





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  • pa_arora
    07-26 04:28 PM
    meekdesi, my friend... I also grew up in Delhi and in the same places what u listed...dont ask for what ur country did for u ...tell me what u did for ur country?? I am pretty sure u don't have an answer and if u do ur making false assertions.

    u know the problem with u ...u just think who will cleanup the house, the other person living can clean it. But that not the way it works...so show what u did before u demand.



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  • at0474
    12-14 05:41 PM
    What if only few countries ONLY can supply the required skilled labor sufficiently and no other countries countries can?

    Then the numbers get distributed among those few countries that produces required skilled labor. To some extent, I thought this is already happening!!:rolleyes:





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  • suriajay12
    09-24 07:59 PM
    congress or the president or USCIS is not going to come and physically check whether you are staying in a house or apt ..and it is not that the original suggestion will become a law in the exact terms (I cannot imagine that there will be a law saying that only those who buy house with 20 down will get GC) ..i.e. the purpose here is to show the giving faster GC's to people who are waiting since 8 years helps the economy in some minute way. and the reverse (i.e. to make a highly paid immigrants wait in line for 8 - 10 years) does not achieve anything !! ..INFACT if there are lot of job losses and if those who are here for 8 plus years start to go back (with their bank balances) ..THEN there will be measurable losses for US ..because the IT person not only takes one job to China, India or some other place ..but also trains lot of youngsters in those places and who end up taking more jobs away ..a BIG loss (plus buys house there, pays taxes, services there) (but I guess politicians are too selfish to see that !!).
    it is as simple as that !!! i.e. give people faster GC's and it helps the US ..make them sweat and keep them in limbo does not achieve anything...will it work God knows ..but it is worth trying since nothing else is happening and soon if things worsen then the GC will be meaning less for many.
    Also, In the end ..if we do go back ..then atleast we will have the satisfaction that we tried everything ..
    ----------
    on unrelated thoughts ..this wait really sucks ..for me it is almost 5 years since I applied for GC and I cannot even imagine how the people who applied in 2001 / 2002 feel.
    -------- and on related point ...don't rush to buy houses if u don't have a GC (actually this makes sense for those on GC too) ..here is a point from an article by Meredith Whitney who sort of became famous after making some correct forecasts.. this article was written today.
    -------
    Whitney said home prices were not close to bottoming and expects prices to ultimately be at least 25 percent lower from current levels. She also sees further declines in homeownership rate.

    The unemployment rate, which is up over 40 percent year-on-year in key states, is "headed materially higher," Whitney said.

    Albert,
    I agree with you.. We need to make the points clear, point wise too. A big letter.. some points may be missed.

    Plusses:1,2,3,4.....
    Negatives:...



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  • syzygy
    09-23 01:41 AM
    This is great idea!


    As completely unrelated these two issues are (from a law maker's perspective) on a normal day, these are possibly those times when each of these issues can help the other.

    IV has been discussing about the possibility of one for two solution (partial). The idea is to request congress to exempt EB applicants & their dependents from numerical limits of the Immigrant visas, if they buy a home. It is my belief that market sentiment is the most important thing in any financial market(s) and the housing prospects look pretty bleak. There are lot of members in the EB community that have NOT bought their own home, even though they could afford one because of the uncertainty with EB GC. IV's idea is to bridge the financial committees and judiciary committees in the House/Senate and see if corresponding Chairman/Ranking members are willing to listen. Things are moving so fast with the 700bn USD bail out plan and we will NOT have time to do things the normal way, through our counsel. We have to present this idea to the corresponding staff members of key members of congress (see list below) and see if this gets traction now or going forward.

    Please do not bring EB-5 discussion/comparison here. The proposed partial solution is different from EB-5 in that EB-5 investors invest money and we are investing in our future with a genuine intention of making USA our permanent home.


    If you already have a home, thats fine. Any such legislation will reduce the wait times in EB categories and we need housing markets to rebound for a safer economy before the ripple effects are felt every where.

    Who to write to

    Staff members(Chief of Staff, Legislative LA, Financial LA, Legislative Director) of Chairman/Ranking members of House/Senate Judiciary committee & Finance/Banking committee, Staff members of your representative and your senators. Please find staff members of the committees in the spreadsheet (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pptN-jEpAiyd3snslhPjBfw).

    You can find your representative & senator staff members on this website (http://www.outsourcecongress.org/outsource/congress/schstaffers.html).

    Content/Message

    SUMMARY

    This proposal alleviates the current US economic crisis, by motivating the US high skilled, legal immigrant workers to purchase homes. The size of this immigrant population is approximately 800,000 individuals. This effort if successful would inject up to US$ 20Billion approximately into the economy (approximately US$ 100 Billion in houses sold across the country) , while at the same time directing this money into the root cause of the economic crisis � the illiquidity of the national housing market. The above calculation is done
    assuming a median US home price of $212,400 and buyers making a down-payment of 20% of the cost of the home. Roughly estimating 400,000 buyers.

    BACKGROUND

    Undoubtedly, we are all devastated by the shake up on Wall Street in the past 15 days. Experts agree that the underpinning problem is the housing crisis caused by sub-prime mortgage loans. Many of us, who cannot afford our monthly mortgage payments are losing homes and putting them up for sale and foreclosure, which further adds to the crisis. At the same time, most of the Employment-based (EB) immigrant community would like to purchase homes and make the United States a permanent home for their families. These EB immigrants however, are living in a state of limbo, mostly in rental apartments because of the delays and uncertainties involved with the EB immigration procedure. The wait times in EB categories are exacerbated by the delays in processing by USCIS, even though eligible applicants have filed for Permanent Residency also known as Adjustment of Status. Such processing delays have resulted in the wastage of 218,000 immigrant visa numbers (Page 52 of USCIS Ombudsman Annual report 2007). The current Department of State visa bulletin shows 7+ years of wait times in certain categories. We strongly believe that legislation can be worked out in such a way that the housing markets all over the country can move towards recovery, while at the same time motivating the Green Card applicants to catalyze this recovery.

    It should be noted that this proposal by no means brings more immigrant workers into the US. The workers in the EB, skilled category are already present in the US, doing skilled jobs that no US worker is available to do. They are part of the long queue of backlogged cases that USICIS will eventually process; however, this wait can take years and in that case could not be used as a tool to minimize the course of the current economic crisis.

    SOLUTION

    Congress can pass legislation that exempts EB green card applicants and their dependents from the numerical limits of visa numbers, provided applicant(s) have bought a home making 20% down payment on the sale price of the home, for a time period deemed necessary by the congress.


    How can Employment based Immigrants help alleviate the housing problem?

    (1) Employment based immigrants are highly skilled and are employed in occupations such as Software, IT, Health care, Energy, Finance, Education and Research & Development across the United States.

    (2) Average income of these individuals/households is around 65,000/130,000 USD.

    (3) All these Employment based immigrants have gone through Department of Labor�s recruiting process, which certifies that there is no willing, able and qualified US Citizen to do the job.

    (4) Most of the Employment based immigrants have excellent credit history and good source of income to make the payments needed for their home mortgage.

    (5) By requiring a 20% down payment from this group of buyers, Congress can directly channel this money to where it is need most � at the banks.

    (6) Employment based green card applicants have been living in the United States for 6-8 years. Many of them have US graduate degrees in their fields of expertise. These applicants are well versed with the American culture and will not change the cultural landscape.

    (7) Financial burden on US government and treasury will be reduced drastically if the glut of houses in the market decreases.


    As a member of the community that wants to make the US its permanent home, I want to contribute to a solution that helps USA and US during these tough times. I sincerely believe that the 30 year commitment on mortgages by Employment based immigrants in the housing market, backed by solid, risk free mortgages can turn the down ward spiral in the housing market into a upward spiral.

    END OF CONTENT





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  • satishku_2000
    01-23 04:47 PM
    Hey

    I agree with you guys that he deservs much more stricter sentence.

    Some of the guys work against us because we are sound different and look different. So dont get into that mode ...



    These kind of small statements can become a big issue particularly in a public forum like this.

    Simple suggestion and peace , I dont mean to offend any one ...



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  • rajeshalex
    07-08 10:01 AM
    Thank You Samay !!

    I was in US from 2000 to 2001 on h1b.(first h1 approval)
    Went to india and worked there from 2001 to 2006
    On new H1 came to US on 2006
    I didnt had the H1b approval copy of first h1 approval(2000 -2001) when I applied for 140. I submitted
    only the current one which is from 2006. My 140 is not yet approved.
    So I would like to make sure whether h1b approval notice copy during 2000 to 2001 was needed/
    will be needed in future.I had submitted 140 during July 07.

    Is it needed for any 140 RFE or 485 level ?

    Good Day !
    Rajesh

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rajeshalex
    Hello,

    Could you tell at 140 level does a candidate needs to submit all the previous
    H1 Approval notices.

    I couldnt submit my previous 140 approval notice since it was during 2000-2001. How important is the previous H1 B approval notices for a 140 approval ? . I submitted the current approval notice which is from 2006-2009

    Rajesh

    Hello

    We normally submit all the previous H-1B approvals with the I-140 application. I am a bit confused from your post is there a gap in your H-1 B approvals.
    __________________





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  • msyedy
    03-19 01:02 PM
    Try this http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=33

    If you need help post there ....other small questions I can help u (free)

    I am not a lawyer, but I can do it for you. I can gaurantee that you will get it if I do it. It is very very very simple. You can do it too.
    But you think by moviing to Canada you will be in a better position.
    I am a canadian immigrant and have been in US since I got my canadian GC because they do not have any jobs, I just took it during recession so that I can go to canada if laid off and it will be easier for me to come back to america.

    Many of my friends have moved back to US after migrating because of the unemployement reasons. High Taxes.

    It is upto you, I wish you best of luck, If you want to move



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  • cygent
    12-19 05:06 PM
    All,

    I have created DIGG article for this, Please digg it.

    http://digg.com/business_finance/How_to_Solve_the_Housing_Crisis_Let_in_More_Immigr ants_to_B_2

    Add this/your comment that involve the backlogged legal community already working in the USA, instead of more H1's. Thank you!

    ******

    Why is Gary looking outside of USA to tap potential home buyers? Just for folks who aren't aware - there are 500,000 high skilled legal immigrant already in USA who are waiting in queue for numbers of years to get their Permanent Residency. Thanks to the limited visa availability based on country chargeability (birth of applicant) and inefficiency of immigration system, these highly skilled, tax paying and law abiding immgrants are waiting for their Green Card (Permanent residency). Some of them have studied here, worked here for years and US is almost a second home to them. They are sitting on pile of cash, Yes - PILE OF HARD CASH. They wouldn't buy house or any big ticket items until they get Green card. Why not give these people, who are already part of our system, conditional Permanent Residency who buy houses. This will also get us immediately required cash and home inventory will go down as much as 300K at minimum. P.S. I AM TALKING ABOUT HIGH SKILLED LEGAL IMMGRANTS AND NOT ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.





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  • Googler
    02-18 03:58 PM
    I do not understand why out of 205 people who voted yes, nobody has :

    1) Contacted an attorney with his own money if they are so interested?
    2) Nobody has agreed to become a plaintiff except Googler.

    Googler, why don't you lead this effort and become the plaintiff and get a lawyer to start filing a case? You can file a class action lawsuit on behalf of all immigrant community. Once you file the case people will thank you and appreciate your bravery.

    I do not think this lawsuit idea will go anywhere unless someone is willing to risk his greencard for it. Because once you become a plaintiff USCIS will review your case more thoroughly. Plus you need to get your employer on the same page for it. You also need to spend thousands of dollars from your own pocket to take part in your lawsuit.

    Another thing, I do not trust lawyers opinion in this matter unless a lawyer is a litigation lawyer. If a lawfirm is good at filing paperwork and filling applications, they cannot do a class action lawsuit. They may show interest in it for money and publicity. You need to get a litigation lawyer only for it.

    I've said this before but perhaps I'll have to say it many more times till it sinks in
    ... the thinking on this is at a VERY VERY VERY preliminary stage. In real life class action lawsuits, named plaintiffs are chosen based on how well they fit the argument in the case, not the other way round. As I said upthread, all those who want decisions, deals, money etc RIGHT NOW are being pretty unrealistic -- probably just because of unfamiliarity with the progress of cases like this. I know people want to be reassured that there is NO risk of losing, every decision node is mapped out, responsibility assigned, but if that is what anyone is thinking they have to rejigger their thinking. ;-)


    IV members should also be aware that all we need are a few named plaintiffs, it isn't as though every IV member or even everyone wanting to sue needs to be a named plaintiff. All the judge needs to recognize is that there is a large group of applicants with same or similar grounds for suing USCIS/Emilio Gonzalez. Edit to add: IV the organization doesn't even need to be the primary plaintiff, since that will necessarily cutoff any parallel discussion with the agencies. The IV forums are just a place to organize this.

    Internet, if you voted no, why are you so worked up about it? Nobody is about to make you do anything you don't want to do. Carry on with your life, this is not about to impinge you negatively. Why do you care what other people do with their time?

    For people who voted yes, it is worth thinking about what you are willing to do for the effort -- at present, all that is needed is an interest and willingness to read and do some research and THAT IS ALL. Read the two paragraphs I quoted above.

    As far as contacting attorneys and moving the ball forward, it is a time consuming process -- it isn't as though they call you right back with a draft brief and legal arguments. This is not an ordinary paperwork issue. It has after all been a grand total of 6 days since the poll was started on 2-12-08!! ;-)





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  • kondur_007
    08-04 10:11 AM
    Hello VDLRAO ,

    People from June 2006 are geting GC means that USCIS enough visa so they started to give gc to 2006 candidates.. is my belief true. What will be date in new year's first quater for eb2 india ?

    I don't think USCIS has any idea as to how much "enough" visa they have....They function randomly...so plz dont draw any conclusions from who is getting a GC now. It could be the last person filed with latest PD while everyone else waits for their GC!

    Just wait and watch. Sept dates will throw some light as to how much of the available visas have they used. (if all, PD will be U, If most/majority: PD will stay same, if less than half: PD will move forward--may be C:p)





    snathan
    08-15 10:33 PM
    Bollywood should first pay taxes, none of these icons, pay taxes legimately in India, remember them dancing in the partys of mafia, which is tied to terrorists, I think the agent did a great job in nabbing this guy. The VVIP mentality should end in India. Stupid illeterate politicians are over playing this, Ambika Soni should do what she is supossed to do in her office.

    Then India would become a well developed country and will rule the world. :D





    swo
    07-12 09:29 PM
    I have to tell you, I read this report in the paper when it was on the front page. While it may be true that some people are always impacted, those that have applied for Canadian PR after living in the states have been successful and had results in less than 2 years from beginning to end, and without the shadow of being employed by a given employer hanging over them.

    No, sorry. It's just not typical. The Canadian "Backlog" does not even BEGIN to compare to the broken, extended, in-status, out-of-status, this form, that form, this queue, priority date, receipt date, labor cert workflow that is the US immigration system.

    Reading this article you would think the Canadian system was a disaster. And yet, the amazing thing is, nowhere was there a mention of EXISTING problems with the US system. Just a criticism of the point system.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/washington/27points.html?ex=1184385600&en=d3301beecf778d15&ei=5070

    June 27, 2007
    Canada’s Policy on Immigrants Brings Backlog
    By CHRISTOPHER MASON and JULIA PRESTON

    TORONTO, June 26 — With an advanced degree in business management from a university in India and impeccable English, Salman Kureishy is precisely the type of foreigner that Canada’s merit-based immigration system was designed to attract.

    Yet eight years went by from the time Mr. Kureishy passed his first Canadian immigration test until he moved from India to Canada. Then he had to endure nine months of bureaucratic delays before landing a job in his field in March.

    Mr. Kureishy’s experience — and that of Canada’s immigration system — offers a cautionary tale for the United States. Mr. Kureishy came to this country under a system Canada pioneered in the 1960s that favors highly skilled foreigners, by assigning points for education and work experience and accepting those who earn high scores.

    A similar point system for the United States is proposed in the immigration bill that bounced back to life on Tuesday, when the Senate reversed a previous stand and brought the bill back to the floor. The vote did not guarantee passage of the bill, which calls for the biggest changes in immigration law in more than 20 years.

    The point system has helped Canada compete with the United States and other Western powers for highly educated workers, the most coveted immigrants in high-tech and other cutting-edge industries. But in recent years, immigration lawyers and labor market analysts say, the Canadian system has become an immovable beast, with a backlog of more than 800,000 applications and waits of four years or more.

    The system’s bias toward the educated has left some industries crying out for skilled blue-collar workers, especially in western Canada where Alberta’s busy oil fields have generated an economic boom. Studies by the Alberta government show the province could be short by as many as 100,000 workers over the next decade.

    In response, some Canadian employers are sidestepping the point system and relying instead on a program initiated in 1998 that allows provincial governments to hand-pick some immigrant workers, and on temporary foreign-worker permits.

    “The points system is so inflexible,” said Herman Van Reekum, an immigration consultant in Calgary who helps Alberta employers find workers. “We need low-skill workers and trades workers here, and those people have no hope under the points system.”

    Canada accepts about 250,000 immigrants each year, more than doubling the per-capita rate of immigration in the United States, census figures from both countries show. Nearly two-thirds of Canada’s population growth comes from immigrants, according to the 2006 census, compared with the United States, where about 43 percent of the population growth comes from immigration. Approximately half of Canada’s immigrants come through the point system.

    Under Canada’s system, 67 points on a 100-point test is a passing score. In addition to education and work experience, aspiring immigrants earn high points for their command of languages and for being between 21 and 49 years old. In the United States, the Senate bill would grant higher points for advanced education, English proficiency and skills in technology and other fields that are in demand. Lower points would be given for the family ties that have been the basic stepping stones of the American immigration system for four decades.

    Part of the backlog in Canada can be traced to a provision in the Canadian system that allows highly skilled foreigners to apply to immigrate even if they do not have a job offer. Similarly, the Senate bill would not require merit system applicants to have job offers in the United States, although it would grant additional points to those who do.

    Without an employment requirement, Canada has been deluged with applications. In testimony in May before an immigration subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives, Howard Greenberg, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, compared the Canadian system to a bathtub with an open faucet and a clogged drain. “It is not surprising that Canada’s bathtub is overflowing,” Mr. Greenberg said.

    Since applications are not screened first by employers, the government bears the burden and cost of assessing them. The system is often slow to evaluate the foreign education credentials and work experience of new immigrants and to direct them toward employers who need their skills, said Jeffrey Reitz, professor of immigration studies at the University of Toronto.

    The problem has been acute in regulated professions like medicine, where a professional organization, the Medical Council of Canada, reviews foreign credentials of new immigrants. The group has had difficulty assessing how a degree earned in China or India stacks up against a similar degree from a university in Canada or the United States. Frustrated by delays, some doctors and other highly trained immigrants take jobs outside their fields just to make ends meet.

    The sheer size of the Canadian point system, the complexity of its rules and its backlogs make it slow to adjust to shifts in the labor market, like the oil boom in Alberta.

    “I am a university professor, and I can barely figure out the points system,” said Don J. DeVoretz, an economics professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia who studies immigration systems. “Lawyers have books that are three feet thick explaining the system.”

    The rush to develop the oil fields in northern Alberta has attracted oil companies from around the world, unleashing a surge of construction. Contractors say that often the only thing holding them back is a shortage of qualified workers.

    Scott Burns, president of Burnco Rock Products in Calgary, a construction materials company with about 1,000 employees, said he had been able to meet his labor needs only by using temporary work permits. Mr. Burns hired 39 Filipinos for jobs in his concrete plants and plans to hire more. He said that many of the temporary workers had critically needed skills, but that they had no hope of immigrating permanently under the federal point system.

    “The system is very much broken,” Mr. Burns said.

    Mr. Kureishy, the immigrant from India, said he was drawn to Canada late in his career by its open society and what appeared to be strong interest in his professional abilities. But even though he waited eight years to immigrate, the equivalent of a doctoral degree in human resources development that he earned from Xavier Labor Relations Institute in India was not evaluated in Canada until he arrived here. During his first six months, Canadian employers had no formal comparison of his credentials to guide them.

    Eventually, Mr. Kureishy, 55, found full-time work in his field, as a program manager assisting foreign professionals at Ryerson University in Toronto. “It was a long process, but I look at myself as fairly resilient,” Mr. Kureishy said.

    He criticized Canada as providing little support to immigrants after they arrived.

    “If you advertised for professors and one comes over and is driving a taxi,” he said, “that’s a problem.”

    Christopher Mason reported from Toronto, and Julia Preston from New York.



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