GETTING WORKERS THROUGH IMMIGRATION A TOUGH JOB IN ITSELF
California Service Center staffers are overworked and under-trained, say some local immigration attorneys. The result, they say, is that Orange County businesses attempting to import employees have a long, long wait.
The CSC, based at the Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel, is one of four U.S. regional service centers that process work and family-sponsored visas. In addition to California, the local office also handles the paperwork for Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and Territory of Guam.
CSC personnel in the local office could not be reached for comment,apparently a confirmation of just how over-worked they are. Despite several calls placed to the Laguna Niguel office, none got through. “All circuits are busy now, please try your call again later,” said a recorded message.
Rayehe Mazarei, an immigration attorney and immigration section chair of the Orange County Bar Association, said “they just have too much work.” CSC devotes resources to processing H and L type work visas, a priority by law. Naturalization is also a big priority. “Tons of resources are devoted to that,” she said.
But even the H visas,temporary work visas,can take up to eight months. Eleny Campbell, Director of Human Resources for Interplay Productions Inc., an entertainment software company in Irvine, said the process is long and tedious. “If we can avoid going outside of the country we prefer to do so.”
And when it comes to other types of work sponsored visas, it can take years. The workers who process the employment-based petitions are busier because there’s such a demand in that area, Mazarei said.
Ron Kamran, an immigration attorney based in Orange, said he filed an employment-based petition with the CSC over a year ago and it still hasn’t been approved. The CSC sent a notice saying it would take 30 days to process, but in reality it takes 10 times longer than that, he said.
Workers Needed
CSC simply needs more employees but it doesn’t have the funds to hire more people, Mazarei said. As far as identifying budget deficiencies or reallocations, that isn’t easily done because CSC is centrally funded by the Immigration and Naturalization Service , said Greg Gagne, public affairs official for the INS. “We don’t have our new financial system in place that will permit us to identify each cost center.”
Essentially, CSC has two “product lines:” the business-sponsored visas and the family-sponsored visas. And since the center has been cross-training its workers, some of the decisions don’t make sense, Mazarei said. “It’s very difficult to get some of what we think are good candidates.” For instance, proving that a medical doctor has “extraordinary” abilities to the person who works in the family-sponsored unit is more difficult than demonstrating that to an experienced work-sponsored staffer. “Time delays can hurt a client,” she said.
But “they’re aware of the problems,” Mazarei said. “They’re trying to clean up their act.”
What takes a month at the Texas Service Center and a couple of weeks at the Vermont Service Center takes a year in California, said Mitch Wexler, an immigration attorney with Hirson Wexler Perl & Stark. Wexler’s Newport Beach office files more than 100 work-sponsored applications.
“For some reason, California just can’t catch up.” What that means is a competitive disadvantage for local companies because foreign workers are going to go to the area where they can get work authorizations more quickly, he said. In addition, filing fees have increased but there’s no added service. For instance, the fees for an H visa now cost an extra $500 that theoretically goes into an educational fund designed to train American workers.
Of course, California handles a lot of cases but it’s still second to the Vermont Service Center, which covers the East Coast. In 1998 Orange County ranked No. 11, with 10,954 admitted immigrants intending to reside in Orange County, according to the INS. And the Los Angeles, Long Beach areas ranked No. 2, with about 60,000 immigrants intending to make those areas their home. New York was No 1.
Backlog Pending
The quality of the CSC staff is good, said John Nelson, an attorney specializing in immigration and naturalization law. CSC just needs more workers. Nelson, who files about 25 cases per month, said the CSC has accumulated a tremendous backlog with 60,000-plus applications pending at the four regional service centers.
And it gets worse.
On top of the CSC backlog, there is a holdup at the U.S. Department of Labor for companies that want to obtain permanent residence (green card) for a worker through labor certification. Initial processing of an application takes up to two years, Nelson said. “There is yet to be a case that is approved,” he said.
The problem is in part due to the time-consuming CIA “third-party agency” background check, which was implemented after the World Trade Center bombing. The CIA clearance is really looking for terrorists, he said.
A way around the traditional labor certification process is the Reduction in Recruitment (RIR) method, or what Nelson calls the “pony show.” A simpler answer would be to raise the caps on the number of immigrants that can come into the country, he said.
RIR applications are forwarded to the California Employment Development Department, which reviews them for completion and compliance and makes sure the prevailing wage is being paid by the employer. EDD then puts together a report on its recommendations and sends it to the U.S. Department of Labor. Essentially, the DOL certifies that no American worker will be displaced.
RIR certification allows an employer to recruit foreign workers only if it has demonstrated consistent recruiting six months prior to the filing of the application. It’s a matter of setting up a pattern of recruiting, then packaging it as an RIR and sending it in, Nelson said. n
