On February 18, 2010, USCIS’s Office of Public Engagement /Community Relations held a “collaboration session focusing on the H-1B Employer-Employee Relationship” as set forth in the January 8, 2010 Neufeld Memo.
There were hundreds of attendees by phone and in person. I am pretty certain, I heard at the beginning of the session that the total in attendance was over 500 hundred. Many staffing employers/ entrepreneurs were present and voiced their concerns. These are a few of the comments that made an impression on me as a participant:
· If THE AGENCY (USCIS) and Congress are trying to do away with H-1b’s for staffing companies, then just state is outright so that businesses don’t waste time and money applying for H-1b’s and do something else with their money , time and talent.
· Why not refund the initial hiring fee and the anti-fraud fee if you are going to deny an H-1b because you don’t find that there is an employer-employee relationship present. It is not fair to employers to have these “memos” out there that are a scare tactic and then keep the fees.
· Staffing companies are major players in the US economy. These companies staff end clients with key talent, many of whom are entrepreneurs, so why have a policy in place that is going to basically “kill off” this entrepreneurial spirit so crucial to economic development?
· The impact of the H-1B memo for foreign doctors and others in the health care field is basically to do away with the H-1B as an avenue for these positions—and there are very few options available as it is.
· And many more comments were heard, including the fact that regulation through Memorandum is not the law and this is what many believe the USCIS as an agency has done through this Memorandum.
By the way, the agency stated that the Memorandum was not issued in response to letters from congress wanting more fraud prevention measures in the H1-B program. The Memorandum was “in the works” for well over one year before it was issued. There were very few other comments made by the panelists. My impression was that they were rather in “stunned” mode.
USCIS was asked to retract the memorandum and start all over again.
Let us see what comes of this. Note that the above were my personal take from the discussion and are not direct quotes.
I have attended many of these public relations type of sessions and this one was vibrant.
Maria L. Santos
Balas, Alphen & Santos, P.C.
Attorney at Law