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Performance Management

Tips to Ease Immigration Frustration

Mike Prokopeak

While there’s little prospect of near-term reform to ease the talent crunch resulting from H-1B visa restrictions, companies looking to retain their competitive edge still must act.

“If you’re in a fast-changing industry, you cannot fail to innovate. You cannot fail to compete or be more productive,” said David Vance, president of Manage Learning LLC and former chief economist and head of the business intelligence unit at Caterpillar Inc. “You’re going to have to accomplish that or you’ll go out of business.”

There are options talent managers can explore to alleviate the talent shortage resulting from H-1B visa restrictions. Bob Meltzer, CEO of immigration solutions provider VisaNow, said the classic HR response is to build the biggest talent pipeline possible, and to make sure it includes current H-1B holders.

“That pipeline should have people that don’t require a brand new H-1B, even if they’re foreign nationals,” he said. “If you have a foreign national that already has an H-1B, they’re not subject to the cap anymore. So you can make an application any time of the year for that individual.”

Meltzer also recommends talent managers utilize alternative visas or work with a provider who knows the alternatives.

“You want to look for people that have other alternative approaches to getting work authorization: Maybe they’re married to a U.S citizen, and then maybe they can fall into another category,” he said.

Alternatives include the F-1 visa category for recent college graduates, although the visa expires one year after graduation. Another alternative is the O-1 visa for workers with extraordinary abilities. This visa category applies to foreign nationals who have won major prizes, awards or recognition in the arts, science, education, business or athletics.

The L visa category can be applied to workers who are transferred to the U.S. by an employer to work for a parent, subsidiary or affiliate company. Holders of this visa can stay in the U.S. up to seven years.

“We’ve been leveraging the L visa, which at least allows us to transplant our own current employees around the world,” said Carolyn Koenig, chief human resources officer for Laird Technologies. “We’ll hire them locally and then bring them on through our own internal transfer. The problem is I’m actually pulling core talent out of one part of my world in order to build it up in another part.”

Outsourcing is another option but is fraught with its own problems.

“There are some things which a company is probably going to consider their core competencies which they do not want to outsource — either in their own country or to an outside country,” Vance said. “They’re worried about confidential information, trade secrets or patent infringement.”

Business advocacy group Partnership for New York City espouses a three-part strategy that incorporates immigration and development to address the talent shortage.

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