Open letter to Barack Obama

Dear Barack --

I want to write to you as our country is making a dramatic mistake that future historians will point to as a reason for our decline. No, not the war in Iraq, something much closer to home. Our policy on accepting and welcoming well educated immigrants into our country, the backbone of our financial success as a nation is appalling.

I just got off the phone with a highly skilled trading systems developer who has been working in the US legally for the last 8 years on an H1B visa. He's looking to return to his native country not because he has a yearning to return home or because he dislikes living in America. Rather it is because he is tired of waiting for his Green Card. Eight years of following all the rules, working hard, saving money and the immigration office tells him that it might be another 2 or 3 years before he will see his Green Card -- that is, if the US doesn't change the law in the meantime.

Many believe that we can supply the needs of our financial and IT industry strictly with people born in the US. This is simply untrue. America does not produce enough graduates each year to supply these firms. As such, firms are offshoring jobs not only to lower cost nations such as India, but also to well developed areas such as the United Kingdom.

The H1B program not only is ineffective in supplying all the needs to America business, it is also vastly unfair. Workers on the H1B program have a myriad of restrictions placed on them which dramatically lowers their labor mobility. Moreover, once the Green Card process has begun, it can take years -- more than 3 years -- to obtain a green card. I know of numerous people who have been legally working in the United States for 9 years who still do not have a green card.

In addition to the H1B program, there are numerous other visa categories that are designed simply to allow employers to keep employees hostage -- the J1 visa, popular among European companies, allows workers to work in the US for a set period of time (generally 1 year) and then not be able to work again for 2 years.

We should be a nation that actively seeks to attract these individuals -- people with Master's and PhD degrees who want to work hard and achieve the American dream.

I suggest a fairer, more efficient process. Why don't we allow anyone with a Master's level degree or higher qualify for a green card. No other restrictions, not on language, on income, no other bureaucratic issues that will further complicate people being able to work in the US. The only catch would be that applicants would have to pay a significant fee for the ability to work in the US -- I would suggest somewhere around $5,000. This would allow people to work for any company thereby eliminating one of the biggest complaints against the H1 program. It would also make the US a vastly more attractive place to work for foreign nationals.