How to involve your employer/company in the CIR lobbying process:

[nk2006]

Now that CIR is our only hope, we have to activate ourselves and work on that. It’s rightly pointed out on another thread that we need active support from employers. Some of us might have approached our employers already with requests to call/write to local congressman or support our (or other similar) organization. This thread is to share our experiences and to brainstorm on how to broach this subject with our employers and somehow make them contribute (in some way) on this issue. For smaller companies this might be a bit easy but for employees of medium and large companies this is not that easy. I recently took an appointment with SVP of our HR (who heads HR organization of whole company of size 10K employees). I explained to him the current visa delays and how its affecting us (carefully avoiding the subject of changing employers ) and how some new rules are being proposed. I mentioned about IV and Compete America when talking about which organizations are working on this. He nodded in agreement for most of my rant. At the end I requested him to call/write local congressman to support this (I mentioned SKILL bill not CIR). His response is a standard I will discuss with COO/legal and others such. But he later indicated that it’s a politically sensitive issue which company may not want to involve. I tried to explain by giving the example of how Microsoft is trying to help in some way. He agreed to discuss further but I got the impression that they will not do anything. I tried to talk on the same subject with our company immigration attorney – he gave me a blunt “you should approach appropriate company people and not me” response.

Anyone here succeeded in convincing your employer to call/write in our support? If so what is the size of your company? And whom did you approach and how did you go about it? What were your talking points? Is it in anyway risky to approach higher ups in a company on this issue (in our company there are many people in the same state as I am; but none of them wanted to accompany me to the meeting fearing how it might affect them; I understand that position but I am wondering anyone saw a particular case of desciplenary action because of such requests) Any related info - please share.

Note/Request/Appeal: please stick to the subject of “how to involve employers (small/medium/big) in our effort and any lessons learned in earlier attempts”. Thanks.

[pitha]

The title of the thread is an oxymoron. My company is indifferent (if not happy) to EB retrogression. BTW I don’t work for a desi company, I work for a fortune 100 multinational. They took five years to finally apply for my green card. I don’t mean to discourage people from trying to get there companies support, I am just pointing some of the realities. The longer the green card process the better for them because you will stick around in the company until you get the green card. I have a lot of friends who work in blue chip companies where the company does everything it can to delay the green card filing to as long as it can. Of late I have been hearing a lot of blue chip companies including mine, say that they will not sponsor green card. This was one reason why 485 measure was so important and it could have brought a lot of benefits to people who were not able to apply for 485 because of retrogression.

Anyway the suggestion is good. Every body do try. During CIR 2006 I went to my company HR to request faxing support for cir or any sort of support for cir. they did not do anything.

Originally Posted by nk2006

Now that CIR is our only hope, we have to activate ourselves and work on that. It’s rightly pointed out on another thread that we need active support from employers. Some of us might have approached our employers already with requests to call/write to local congressman or support our (or other similar) organization. This thread is to share our experiences and to brainstorm on how to broach this subject with our employers and somehow make them contribute (in some way) on this issue. For smaller companies this might be a bit easy but for employees of medium and large companies this is not that easy. I recently took an appointment with SVP of our HR (who heads HR organization of whole company of size 10K employees). I explained to him the current visa delays and how its affecting us (carefully avoiding the subject of changing employers ) and how some new rules are being proposed. I mentioned about IV and Compete America when talking about which organizations are working on this. He nodded in agreement for most of my rant. At the end I requested him to call/write local congressman to support this (I mentioned SKILL bill not CIR). His response is a standard I will discuss with COO/legal and others such. But he later indicated that it’s a politically sensitive issue which company may not want to involve. I tried to explain by giving the example of how Microsoft is trying to help in some way. He agreed to discuss further but I got the impression that they will not do anything. I tried to talk on the same subject with our company immigration attorney – he gave me a blunt “you should approach appropriate company people and not me” response.

Anyone here succeeded in convincing your employer to call/write in our support? If so what is the size of your company? And whom did you approach and how did you go about it? What were your talking points? Is it in anyway risky to approach higher ups in a company on this issue (in our company there are many people in the same state as I am; but none of them wanted to accompany me to the meeting fearing how it might affect them; I understand that position but I am wondering anyone saw a particular case of desciplenary action because of such requests) Any related info - please share.

Note/Request/Appeal: please stick to the subject of “how to involve employers (small/medium/big) in our effort and any lessons learned in earlier attempts”. Thanks.

[pappu]

Good effort and the thread.
we have been appealing members to approach their employers and have them help us in our struggle. We need members helping out with this effort. IV can help you once your company is ready to help. we can then get in touch with your company's senior management to discuss it if needed.

[nk2006]

Originally Posted by pitha

The title of the thread is an oxymoron. My company is indifferent (if not happy) to EB retrogression.
Anyway the suggestion is good. Every body do try. During CIR 2006 I went to my company HR to request faxing support for cir or any sort of support for cir. they did not do anything.

You are partly right about employers being indifferent (or even happy) about retrogession. That’s where our challenge is. Maybe we should talk about CIR measures they are interested in – like increase in H1B numbers; or possible saving in application expenses (someone stuck in GC limbo needs to extend H1B/EAD/AP on a regular basis and many companies pay them by themselves; in our company there are huge number of h1b’s at various stages of GC process and company can save a few thousand bucks easily). Yes I agree it’s not easy but on the other hand if we are not able to convince our employers (who has a lot of benefit coming out of the same bill) how can we expect to convince law makers? Also many times people dont know the extent of our issue - when I mentioned that at the current rate my GC application will take 7-8 years, my HR laughed thinking that I am exagarating. Fortunately I took all the latest visa bulletins and INS's projections with me and showed it to him. He was really surprised to know that - pls understand that he is very well versed with all immigration related stuff since our company have lot of H1b's and TN's - and he was sympathetic to my state when I mentioned that my wife is not working for last 8 years even though she wants to and qualified to. My point is we can project our real/painful issues and appeal to their good sense.

Anyone got any positive feedback in your company? Lets share your experiences so others can try to emulate them in their work places.

[IneedAllGreen]

Part of the things I agree with what "Pitha" was telling here. My employer last I heard was surprised and was worried on fact that "How did some some of the employee got their labor clear in PERM withing 15 days". The reason is that my employer never bother to see the current rules and regulation and he assumed that like in old days we all will get our GC process done.

Above some of the reason I know that my co-workers(Fresh Graduate from US universities) are worried that how and why our employer is delaying filling I-140 and stuff like that. I tell them(Based on my 8 years of experience dealing with my earlier employer and attorney) that they can make delay for certain days and months before they file all stages of GC but somewhere in point they know if their policy is still continue they will going to loose their consultant. I work for one the Desi consulting company. They pay me well on bench or on project. They agree to file my GC as soon as I join them. They kept their promise. So its true that some time consulting companies dont like us to rush GC process but they got no choice on denying filling till end(Because then people will leave them).

Thanks
INeedAllGreen

Originally Posted by pitha

The title of the thread is an oxymoron. My company is indifferent (if not happy) to EB retrogression. BTW I don’t work for a desi company, I work for a fortune 100 multinational. They took five years to finally apply for my green card. I don’t mean to discourage people from trying to get there companies support, I am just pointing some of the realities. The longer the green card process the better for them because you will stick around in the company until you get the green card. I have a lot of friends who work in blue chip companies where the company does everything it can to delay the green card filing to as long as it can. Of late I have been hearing a lot of blue chip companies including mine, say that they will not sponsor green card. This was one reason why 485 measure was so important and it could have brought a lot of benefits to people who were not able to apply for 485 because of retrogression.

Anyway the suggestion is good. Every body do try. During CIR 2006 I went to my company HR to request faxing support for cir or any sort of support for cir. they did not do anything.

[raj3078]

I find total different approach at my workplace which is also Fortune 500 company. Immi-Legal department is knoweldgeable and symphathatic about our issues. In fact the head of Immi dept was very annoyed when the bill passed to increase EB visa was taken out in conf in 2005 and he was more annoyed when it was repeated with CIR. He says that Senate can pass Immi bill anytime, but its house which is messed up.....
My company wants us to have GC as it allows them to have flexible workforce not tied to job description..

Originally Posted by pitha

The title of the thread is an oxymoron. My company is indifferent (if not happy) to EB retrogression. BTW I don’t work for a desi company, I work for a fortune 100 multinational. They took five years to finally apply for my green card. I don’t mean to discourage people from trying to get there companies support, I am just pointing some of the realities. The longer the green card process the better for them because you will stick around in the company until you get the green card. I have a lot of friends who work in blue chip companies where the company does everything it can to delay the green card filing to as long as it can. Of late I have been hearing a lot of blue chip companies including mine, say that they will not sponsor green card. This was one reason why 485 measure was so important and it could have brought a lot of benefits to people who were not able to apply for 485 because of retrogression.

Anyway the suggestion is good. Every body do try. During CIR 2006 I went to my company HR to request faxing support for cir or any sort of support for cir. they did not do anything.

[InTheMoment]

Pretty much similar here. Working in a Fortune 500 and the company did not apply for 3 years coz we were laying off loads of people, consequently LC rejection was a no-brainer. However as soon as the situation improved they prompty applied for the LC (old style) and when PERM kicked in another one there...I-140 done premium, as well as RIR conversion at BEC applied ! all without any pleas from employees. Infact my manager clearly knows that I may jump ship as soon as the immigration status permits me to do so.

Our company has a immigration officer who takes care of all approvals but other than that, what are the other hi-impact positions that I may contact within the company who can be sympathetic to the retrogression issue and help in the lobbying efforts ? A sample communication letter or a pointer to one would hasten things too.

[pappu]

contact IV core if you feel you can contact your company. get in touch with IV core member-- eagerr2i (ashish) who will help you.

[gc4me]

Former Congressman Harold E. Ford, Jr. Joins Merrill Lynch as Vice Chairman

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070214/20070214005527.html?.v=1

People, who work in Merrill Lynch, please try to form a group and try to talk to Mr. Ford and explain our situation so that he can pass the info to his former colleagues in congress. Who work in ML, please PM me.

[optimist578]

Anybody in Citi?