No more B-1H visas for Israelis

Date: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 4:35 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

by Rob Sanchez
August 16, 2005 No. 1315

An activist sent me the following article from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz with a question: What is a B-1H visa? I'll have to admit that question buffaloed me for a few minutes.

After reading the article a few times I deducted from the context that "B-1H" is a typo that was probably made by someone who speaks Hebrew, which is a language that is written from right-to-left instead of English which is left-to-right. H-1B was reversed to read B1-H!

I think I'll go with the Hebrew spelling to discuss what this article in order to add some ethnic flavor to my commentary!

The article is another one of many that are appearing all over the world bemoaning the fact that B-1H visas have been totally used up for 2006. In this case the Israelis are whining that it's going to be tougher for 1,000 Israeli high-tech workers per year to come to the U.S. to take our jobs. Let's all give the Israelis a big compassionate sob:
... Boo!Hoo! ... Boo!Hoo!

"It is a hard blow for Israeli hi-tech," says attorney Noam
Schwartz, who specializes in emigration and work visas to
the U.S.

So what's an Israeli programmer to do if he can't get a B1-H visa? For starters he might be able to use a 1L visa (that's L-1 in English) or they could illegally use 1E visas (E-1) which are supposed to be used for business owners, not jobs like programmers. The other alternative is for Israel to scrounge around for spare visas, like for instance they have their eyes on unused H-1B1 visas allotted in the Singapore/Chile Free Trade Agreement. At this very moment their buddies at the Israeli-U.S. Chamber of Commerce are trying to grease the skids on that one, but I have bad news for them because India is trying to get those leftover visas also. It's sort of like a pack of wild dogs going after the last piece of decaying meat!

In the last year the Israeli-U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been
striving to add Israel to Singapore and Chile, which receive a
fixed quota of 6,800 B-1H visas, which they never use up.

Apparently it's not easy for Israel to abuse E visas like some other countries can because they don't have a free trade agreement with us. I would pose this as an excellent example why the American public should oppose all FTAs, and one more example of why we are going to be shafted bigtime by CAFTA!

Other countries competing with Israel in hi-tech, such as Japan,
France and Germany, have the option of 2E visas, intended for
temporary investors and providers of business services. But
that option is not available to Israelis because the government
didn't trouble itself to sign the appropriate pact with the U.S.
as the other countries did, Schwartz explains.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=612398

Last update - 18:08 14/08/2005
United States suspends extension of visas for hi-tech workers
By Oded Hermoni

United States authorities have suspended the grant of B-1H class entry visas for hi-tech professionals on the grounds that the United States has already filled its quota under the category throughout 2006.

"It is a hard blow for Israeli hi-tech," says attorney Noam Schwartz, who specializes in emigration and work visas to the U.S.

The U.S. will resume accepting B-1H category work visa applications only in October 2006.

Schwartz said that about 1,000 Israeli hi-tech workers receive B-1H visas each year, out of 56,000 applications worldwide. B-1H are granted to engineers, and are valid for six years.

"In practice, hi-tech workers have few alternatives to the B-1H. The American government's decision is a problem for not a few companies, which will have trouble fulfilling the contractual terms of tenders they won, because they won't be able to send their workers to the U.S," he says.

The alternative is a 1L visa, which is limited to workers who have worked at least a year for the company, or 1E visas for workers at companies with trade relations with the U.S. But the latter are very hard to get, Schwartz says.

In the last year the Israeli-U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been striving to add Israel to Singapore and Chile, which receive a fixed quota of 6,800 B-1H visas, which they never use up. The CoC had hoped to take advantage of the 20-year anniversary of the U.S.-Israeli trade pact, but it hasn't worked so far.

Other countries competing with Israel in hi-tech, such as Japan, France and Germany, have the option of 2E visas, intended for temporary investors and providers of business services. But that option is not available to Israelis because the government didn't trouble itself to sign the appropriate pact with the U.S. as the other countries did, Schwartz explains.

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