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Yeah check this page:

http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/
404 - Requested Page Has Moved

On March 1, 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its functions were divided into various bureaus of that department. The website you have requested has been moved to http://www.bcis.gov. If you were referred to this URL by another website, please contact the owner of that site to inform him or her of the change in address.

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An attempt was made to find the specific page you requested:

Click on the link below to find the page:

http://www.immigration.gov
Thank you for your cooperation.

I'd like to point everyone over to a news.com article that was posted about H-1B's. This article is a good summary, but to really understand it you should actually read the regulations that are in place. The INS website is a good place to start.

For the first time, hackers can kill. Considering the number of people who use their cell phones while driving, a random "crash" (what a terrible pun) while trying to send email or view stock quotes while driving should be enough to push a few drivers "over the edge".

The good news is that if terrorists intend to use such "crash" attempts to crash cars or other vehicles, we at least have new legislation to stop them.

I don't understand the level of panic I'm seeing in most of the replies to this article. Have any of you folks actually read the legislation? Most of it consists of running "sed -e s/phone/phone, voice or internet" on existing laws. E.g., the ability to obtain IP address/name pairs from cable companies is analogous to the ability to map phone numbers to names. We're not exactly shredding the Bill of Rights, here.

There is a real tension between civil liberties and physical safety, no matter what Ben Franklin said; we have enemies who want to slaughter us wholesale, and the freedoms available to them in this country are enabling them to do so. In this context, the USA Patriot Act is a reasonable compromise, despite the newspeak name. The freedoms it sacrifices are non-essential (yes, there is such a thing), and yet it has a fighting chance of being effective. It represents a sweet-spot in the freedom/safety trade-off.

Even if it were the piece of totalitarian toilet paper some would have us believe, it at least has a sunset clause. I.e., on Dec. 31, 2005, the USA Patriot Act ceases to be the law of the land. Not quite what you'd expect from a fascist power-grab.

I suspect the most hyperbolic complaints about this piece of legislation come from people who are upset about the general erosion of civil liberties underway. If you fall into this category, your energy is wasted on the USA Patriot Act. Executive orders allowing military tribunals and spying on lawyers are massively more troubling than the FBI being able to find out whose machine is at 65.12.14.153; if you don't understand why, I'm afraid you've been spending too much time on slashdot.

You're not too far off.

Check out the immigration application form that needs to be filled out. See page 3.

Did you get the name of the person who gave you that information? I wonder if filing an I-847 is relevant.

• Your retinal pattern (feel like changing the pattern of blood vessels and nerves at the back of your eye?).
• Your fingerprints (feel like grafting on someone else's finger-skin or burning the skin on your fingertips?).
• Your hand geometry (feel like breaking every bone in your hand?).
• Your facial geometry (and this doesn't count your skin hanging on it) (feel like breaking your jaw, your cheekbones, your forehead?).

The US Immigration has actually created the INSPASS program, which uses a card and your hand geometry to allow you to walk through immigration at many US airports (San Francisco has it, I know). It's a concept which is coming to more and more uses in governments.

1. Make sure that all students have done an internship with local or regional employers. This gives them a chance to get a sponsoring employer when it is time for green cards/H1B visas.
2. Have a counselor experienced in INS hoorah. Other /. topics have explored the inequities of the system. Other posts have done a good job of trolling about racism and isolationism.

The major difficulty is that green cards are granted by country. Once your country has used up its number of green cards - you're up a creek. The other major difficulty is that immigration is usually by family status, rather than by educational status or training..

Again, if you want students to have a sponsoring employer after graduation, you must work on outside employment issues at all times after the second term of school.

• Push internships.
• Push work experience.
• And, because employers are funny about accents in anybody who has customer contact, even regional U.S. accents, push practical classes in colloquial English.

1. Make sure that all students have done an internship with local or regional employers. This gives them a chance to get a sponsoring employer when it is time for green cards/H1B visas.
2. Have a counselor experienced in INS hoorah. Other /. topics have explored the inequities of the system. Other posts have done a good job of trolling about racism and isolationism.

The major difficulty is that green cards are granted by country. Once your country has used up its number of green cards - you're up a creek. The other major difficulty is that immigration is usually by family status, rather than by educational status or training..

Again, if you want students to have a sponsoring employer after graduation, you must work on outside employment issues at all times after the second term of school.

• Push internships.
• Push work experience.
• And, because employers are funny about accents in anybody who has customer contact, even regional U.S. accents, push practical classes in colloquial English.

Lets pick some of these major concerns apart shall we?
A major reason why so much software sucks, is because its written by some guy with his brand new AS in Visual Basic.

"An H-1B nonimmigrant is an alien employed in a specialty occupation or as a fashion model of distinguished merit and ability. A specialty occupation is an occupation that requires theoretical and practical application of a body of specialized knowledge and attainment of a bachelor's or higher degree in the specific specialty as a minimum for admission into the United States."

Quoted from here. Additionally, Characteristics of Specialty Occupationalist Workers state that it is a must that the degree this worker holds be equivalent for them to be considered for a Visa, further about 41% according to the document of workers hold a Masters or higher.
Darn, I guess we can't blame foreign workers for some software being crappy....

Unemployment is so horribly low at the moment there isn't any labor
Well hmm lets think about this... maybe the statistics include mostly the elderly, children and the few-and-far-between-people who choose not to work?

It alarms me that people put forward statements like these "foremost concerns" with no regard for how foreign workers are treated while they are here... They make at least a factor of ten less in some cases than American workers.... and with the current ACWIA they lose work authorization status if they try to leave jobs where they are treated badly. Yes, I know the parties use dispicable tactics but we also need a global perspective on how what is done here affects other countries, regardless.

What also bothers me is that I have not yet seen or heard of efforts for having the educational system entertained in America to be on par with the countries that you "import" workers from. If you look at the list of countries you notice that the countries have a strong educational (and disciplinary system). In that particular regard, put up or shut up.

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