Immigration Law

Unskilled Labor Visas Are Hard To Get

The Dallas Morning News has a good article about the scarcity of work visas for unskilled labor, and the effect this shortage has on businesses seeking workers. Only 5,000 work visas are available every year for unskilled laborers.

The article quotes Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service:

"There are only 5,000 visas in the system for people to come that way," said Ms. Meissner, now a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. "There are probably 500,000 people added to the illegal population each year, and the large majority are unskilled. Things are so out of kilter."

Ms. Meissner's task force called for a restructuring of the chaotic visa system and stronger employment-based immigration policies.

Initially, the plan calls for:

• Temporary visas to be issued for short-term stays and work assignments.

• Provisional visas to allow employers to recruit foreign-born workers for permanent jobs and possible future immigration.

• And permanent immigration for those who graduate from provisional status.

The system initially would allow about 1.5 million visas a year.

From Immigration-Law-Answers-Blog posted 2006-12-28.