Message Points
H-1B Visas
How to Use the
Message: Use these messages when discussing H-1B visas with
Congress and the news media. You should start with the overall
theme, and hit as many of the messages and sub-messages as time
permits. Remember these themes help you connect with people who
do not know as much about the topic as you do. The messages may
seem simplistic to subject experts like you, but are crafted so
that you can make your point using emotion and fact, so that
people can grasp both the problem and the solution.
OVERALL THEME: The H-1B cap is
a cap on Americas economic growth.
There is a shortage of skilled
professional workers.
- Federal Reserve Board reports that companies across the
country have difficulty in finding and retaining
qualified professionals.
- All sectors of the economy are affected
manufacturing, technology, small business, education and
state and local governments.
- 88% of manufacturers report difficulty in finding
qualified candidates for a myriad of jobs.
- The U.S. Commerce Department says up to 190,000 high-tech
jobs are going unfilled.
- Hospitals across the country are having a hard time
getting health care professionals
- Colleges, universities and school districts across the
country cannot obtain qualified instructors.
H-1B visas are part of the solution.
- Temporary foreign professionals are a small part of the
solution representing less than 0.1% of the U.S.
labor force.
- U.S. companies continue to invest in the Americas
workforce--$210 billion in training and education each
year.
- H-1Bs allow companies, colleges, universities and school
districts to hire temporary foreign professionals.
- H-1B applicants can only be hired for jobs requiring the
equivalent of a bachelors degree.
- H-1B visas cover professionals, such as accountants,
doctors, engineers, health care professionals,
researchers, professors, teachers, and computer
professionals.
- H-1B professionals do not hurt U.S. workers -- employers
must protect wages and working conditions, first recruit
in the U.S., and cannot displace American workers.
- H-1B employees create additional jobs in the economy.
The H-1B cap is a cap on American
economic growth.
- The current H-1B cap is 115,000 visas this fiscal year;
it will decrease to 107,500 next year, and will go
down to 65,000 the following year.
- The cap has been reached early in each of the last three
years.
- American companies cannot obtain needed professionals,
who are being taken by our foreign competition.
- Companies tell the Federal Reserve Board they have cut
back on expansion plans due to the shortage of
professionals. Some companies have moved operations
overseas.
- Chairman Alan Greenspan of the Federal Reserve notes that
without immigration our economic growth could be
threatened.
Support S. 2045 and H.R. 3983 Help
Keep our Economy Growing!