US Housing Crisis and Employment based Green Card issues

[nixstor]

As completely unrelated these two issues are (from a law maker's perspective) on a normal day, these are possibly those times when each of these issues can help the other.

IV has been discussing about the possibility of one for two solution (partial). The idea is to request congress to exempt EB applicants & their dependents from numerical limits of the Immigrant visas, if they buy a home. It is my belief that market sentiment is the most important thing in any financial market(s) and the housing prospects look pretty bleak. There are lot of members in the EB community that have NOT bought their own home, even though they could afford one because of the uncertainty with EB GC. IV's idea is to bridge the financial committees and judiciary committees in the House/Senate and see if corresponding Chairman/Ranking members are willing to listen. Things are moving so fast with the 700bn USD bail out plan and we will NOT have time to do things the normal way, through our counsel. We have to present this idea to the corresponding staff members of key members of congress (see list below) and see if this gets traction now or going forward.

Please do not bring EB-5 discussion/comparison here. The proposed partial solution is different from EB-5 in that EB-5 investors invest money and we are investing in our future with a genuine intention of making USA our permanent home.


If you already have a home, thats fine. Any such legislation will reduce the wait times in EB categories and we need housing markets to rebound for a safer economy before the ripple effects are felt every where.

Who to write to

Staff members(Chief of Staff, Legislative LA, Financial LA, Legislative Director) of Chairman/Ranking members of House/Senate Judiciary committee & Finance/Banking committee, Staff members of your representative and your senators. Please find staff members of the committees in the spreadsheet.

You can find your representative & senator staff members on this website.

Please use valid email addresses and NOT fictitious/junk mail. It undermines the whole purpose and our emails will be flagged by mail scanners / spam checkers as some thing similar to famous Nigeria bank account scams.


Email Subject: Proposal to alleviate current US Housing/economic crisis

Content/Message

SUMMARY

This proposal alleviates the current US economic crisis, by motivating the US high skilled, legal immigrant workers to purchase homes. The size of this immigrant population is approximately 800,000 individuals. This effort if successful would inject up to US$ 20Billion approximately into the economy (approximately US$ 100 Billion in houses sold across the country) , while at the same time directing this money into the root cause of the economic crisis – the illiquidity of the national housing market. The above calculation is done
assuming a median US home price of $212,400 and buyers making a down-payment of 20% of the cost of the home. Roughly estimating 400,000 buyers.

BACKGROUND

Undoubtedly, we are all devastated by the shake up on Wall Street in the past 15 days. Experts agree that the underpinning problem is the housing crisis caused by sub-prime mortgage loans. Many of us, who cannot afford our monthly mortgage payments are losing homes and putting them up for sale and foreclosure, which further adds to the crisis. At the same time, most of the Employment-based (EB) immigrant community would like to purchase homes and make the United States a permanent home for their families. These EB immigrants however, are living in a state of limbo, mostly in rental apartments because of the delays and uncertainties involved with the EB immigration procedure. The wait times in EB categories are exacerbated by the delays in processing by USCIS, even though eligible applicants have filed for Permanent Residency also known as Adjustment of Status. Such processing delays have resulted in the wastage of 218,000 immigrant visa numbers (Page 52 of USCIS Ombudsman Annual report 2007). The current Department of State visa bulletin shows 7+ years of wait times in certain categories. We strongly believe that legislation can be worked out in such a way that the housing markets all over the country can move towards recovery, while at the same time motivating the Green Card applicants to catalyze this recovery.

It should be noted that this proposal by no means brings more immigrant workers into the US. The workers in the EB, skilled category are already present in the US, doing skilled jobs that no US worker is available to do. They are part of the long queue of backlogged cases that USICIS will eventually process; however, this wait can take years and in that case could not be used as a tool to minimize the course of the current economic crisis.

SOLUTION

Congress can pass legislation that exempts EB green card applicants and their dependents from the numerical limits of visa numbers, provided applicant(s) have bought a home making 20% down payment on the sale price of the home, for a time period deemed necessary by the congress.


How can Employment based Immigrants help alleviate the housing problem?

(1) Employment based immigrants are highly skilled and are employed in occupations such as Software, IT, Health care, Energy, Finance, Education and Research & Development across the United States.

(2) Average income of these individuals/households is around 65,000/130,000 USD.

(3) All these Employment based immigrants have gone through Department of Labor’s recruiting process, which certifies that there is no willing, able and qualified US Citizen to do the job.

(4) Most of the Employment based immigrants have excellent credit history and good source of income to make the payments needed for their home mortgage.

(5) By requiring a 20% down payment from this group of buyers, Congress can directly channel this money to where it is need most – at the banks.

(6) Employment based green card applicants have been living in the United States for 6-8 years. Many of them have US graduate degrees in their fields of expertise. These applicants are well versed with the American culture and will not change the cultural landscape.

(7) Financial burden on US government and treasury will be reduced drastically if the glut of houses in the market decreases.


As a member of the community that wants to make the US its permanent home, I want to contribute to a solution that helps USA and US during these tough times. I sincerely believe that the 30 year commitment on mortgages by Employment based immigrants in the housing market, backed by solid, risk free mortgages can turn the down ward spiral in the housing market into a upward spiral.

END OF CONTENT

[syzygy]

This is great idea!

Originally Posted by nixstor

As completely unrelated these two issues are (from a law maker's perspective) on a normal day, these are possibly those times when each of these issues can help the other.

IV has been discussing about the possibility of one for two solution (partial). The idea is to request congress to exempt EB applicants & their dependents from numerical limits of the Immigrant visas, if they buy a home. It is my belief that market sentiment is the most important thing in any financial market(s) and the housing prospects look pretty bleak. There are lot of members in the EB community that have NOT bought their own home, even though they could afford one because of the uncertainty with EB GC. IV's idea is to bridge the financial committees and judiciary committees in the House/Senate and see if corresponding Chairman/Ranking members are willing to listen. Things are moving so fast with the 700bn USD bail out plan and we will NOT have time to do things the normal way, through our counsel. We have to present this idea to the corresponding staff members of key members of congress (see list below) and see if this gets traction now or going forward.

Please do not bring EB-5 discussion/comparison here. The proposed partial solution is different from EB-5 in that EB-5 investors invest money and we are investing in our future with a genuine intention of making USA our permanent home.


If you already have a home, thats fine. Any such legislation will reduce the wait times in EB categories and we need housing markets to rebound for a safer economy before the ripple effects are felt every where.

Who to write to

Staff members(Chief of Staff, Legislative LA, Financial LA, Legislative Director) of Chairman/Ranking members of House/Senate Judiciary committee & Finance/Banking committee, Staff members of your representative and your senators. Please find staff members of the committees in the spreadsheet.

You can find your representative & senator staff members on this website.

Content/Message

SUMMARY

This proposal alleviates the current US economic crisis, by motivating the US high skilled, legal immigrant workers to purchase homes. The size of this immigrant population is approximately 800,000 individuals. This effort if successful would inject up to US$ 20Billion approximately into the economy (approximately US$ 100 Billion in houses sold across the country) , while at the same time directing this money into the root cause of the economic crisis – the illiquidity of the national housing market. The above calculation is done
assuming a median US home price of $212,400 and buyers making a down-payment of 20% of the cost of the home. Roughly estimating 400,000 buyers.

BACKGROUND

Undoubtedly, we are all devastated by the shake up on Wall Street in the past 15 days. Experts agree that the underpinning problem is the housing crisis caused by sub-prime mortgage loans. Many of us, who cannot afford our monthly mortgage payments are losing homes and putting them up for sale and foreclosure, which further adds to the crisis. At the same time, most of the Employment-based (EB) immigrant community would like to purchase homes and make the United States a permanent home for their families. These EB immigrants however, are living in a state of limbo, mostly in rental apartments because of the delays and uncertainties involved with the EB immigration procedure. The wait times in EB categories are exacerbated by the delays in processing by USCIS, even though eligible applicants have filed for Permanent Residency also known as Adjustment of Status. Such processing delays have resulted in the wastage of 218,000 immigrant visa numbers (Page 52 of USCIS Ombudsman Annual report 2007). The current Department of State visa bulletin shows 7+ years of wait times in certain categories. We strongly believe that legislation can be worked out in such a way that the housing markets all over the country can move towards recovery, while at the same time motivating the Green Card applicants to catalyze this recovery.

It should be noted that this proposal by no means brings more immigrant workers into the US. The workers in the EB, skilled category are already present in the US, doing skilled jobs that no US worker is available to do. They are part of the long queue of backlogged cases that USICIS will eventually process; however, this wait can take years and in that case could not be used as a tool to minimize the course of the current economic crisis.

SOLUTION

Congress can pass legislation that exempts EB green card applicants and their dependents from the numerical limits of visa numbers, provided applicant(s) have bought a home making 20% down payment on the sale price of the home, for a time period deemed necessary by the congress.


How can Employment based Immigrants help alleviate the housing problem?

(1) Employment based immigrants are highly skilled and are employed in occupations such as Software, IT, Health care, Energy, Finance, Education and Research & Development across the United States.

(2) Average income of these individuals/households is around 65,000/130,000 USD.

(3) All these Employment based immigrants have gone through Department of Labor’s recruiting process, which certifies that there is no willing, able and qualified US Citizen to do the job.

(4) Most of the Employment based immigrants have excellent credit history and good source of income to make the payments needed for their home mortgage.

(5) By requiring a 20% down payment from this group of buyers, Congress can directly channel this money to where it is need most – at the banks.

(6) Employment based green card applicants have been living in the United States for 6-8 years. Many of them have US graduate degrees in their fields of expertise. These applicants are well versed with the American culture and will not change the cultural landscape.

(7) Financial burden on US government and treasury will be reduced drastically if the glut of houses in the market decreases.


As a member of the community that wants to make the US its permanent home, I want to contribute to a solution that helps USA and US during these tough times. I sincerely believe that the 30 year commitment on mortgages by Employment based immigrants in the housing market, backed by solid, risk free mortgages can turn the down ward spiral in the housing market into a upward spiral.

END OF CONTENT

[aps]

This is not fair and good idea. what about people waiting in line for years and invested their money elsewhere because of this green card delays or those who do not have enough money and job in this market situation. All of the sudden you are brining this idea. This is not fair. This is kind of buying green card. There is a investment based green card category available for that. I request you to go through that channel if you are rich. Not all employment based green card seekers are rich. Please keep that in mind.

thanks,
aps

[nixstor]

Originally Posted by aps

This is not fair and good idea. what about people waiting in line for years and invested their money elsewhere because of this green card delays or those who do not have enough money and job in this market situation. All of the sudden you are brining this idea. This is not fair. This is kind of buying green card. There is a investment based green card category available for that. I request you to go through that channel if you are rich. Not all employment based green card seekers are rich. Please keep that in mind.

thanks,
aps

Did it occur for a single moment that if some one gets out of the line, the line gets shorter? F Y I, This is NOT about me. This is about every one here. I did not dream of this situation which directly favors some one today. Simply, Not many folks knew it was going to be this bad. Folks who knew, kept quiet telling people that its NOT that bad. There is NOT going to be a single solution that benefits every one involved here. Let it be recapture, country limits or advanced degree exemption. Choice is (y)ours. We can decide to be the frogs in the well and pull the next frog down or we can work on making this pitch which can be palatable to sensible people, who understand the magnanimity of the situation

[JunRN]

Asking for exemption from quota will cause this proposal to fail. My suggestion:

Of the 10,000 available visas per year for EB5, only about 3k to 4k are being used. How about if one buy a house and give a minimum $100,000 cash payment (not credit in US), he will get a temporary greencard from the EB5 visa pool. If after 2 years, the house is occupied and owned by the same person without problems with credit, he will get a permanent GC. This is on top of meeting the requirements of the category he is in.

Sorry for bringing EB5 in my comments.

This is just my opinion.

[aps]

Most of us are waiting in line for years by sacrificing their career growth and earnings with the so called consulting companies. what for? To get a green card by buying a home here? Is it sensible? common. Bring some common solution to everybody, not for few. If you want to leave some IV members behind, then you may continue with this idea. your proposal DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE to me.

[nixstor]

Originally Posted by JunRN

Asking for exemption from quota will cause this proposal to fail. My suggestion:

Of the 10,000 available visas per year for EB5, only about 3k to 4k are being used. How about if one buy a house and give a minimum $100,000 cash payment (not credit in US), he will get a temporary greencard from the EB5 visa pool. If after 2 years, the house is occupied and owned by the same person without problems with credit, he will get a permanent GC. This is on top of meeting the requirements of the category he is in.

Sorry for bringing EB5 in my comments.

This is just my opinion.

I hear your pessimism on the exemption from quota. The write up here is an attempt to bring the committees on both sides to the table and let them decide what they want to do with it. The solution quoted here will not be as it is if it were to be drafted by folks on the hill. In normal conditions, exemption from numerical limits is a big issue, but given the surplus of homes, 11.5 month inventory and ever growing foreclosures, rock solid mortgages EB applicants qualify for, might make such exemption possible in a situation that is referred to as once in a century thing.

20% down payment on sale price is a sign of good borrowing habits in the mortgage industry. Last time when I checked approximately 800 visas were used in EB-5 yearly. Thats a different story.

[syzygy]

I have sent close to 10 emails putting subject

"Proposal to alleviate current US economic crisis"

I hope I am doing right..

[nixstor]

Originally Posted by syzygy

I have sent close to 10 emails putting subject

"Proposal to alleviate current US economic crisis"

I hope I am doing right..

Housing/economic crisis rather than economic crisis

Please send emails from your own emails so that we can know what staff members and their bosses think.

[JunRN]

I like the idea and I support it. Just want to make sure that we offer something that is acceptable to both Rep. and Dem.

At first sight of this proposal, those who oppose "non-quota" migth turn off immediately and not be open for further discussion. Imagine, even investor visa has quota of 10,000 per year.

I agree that the current situation might change their minds. This proposal is better than doing nothing at all. I, myself, is not yet buying a house until I get my GC or atleast be sure to get one in the near future. I am worried though that my bank savings will go to drain.

[syzygy]

Hello,

I am using my hotmail email account to send emails and my real name. Is that what you mean by your own emails ? Or do you want us to send email from office / university email addresses?

Originally Posted by nixstor

Housing/economic crisis rather than economic crisis

Please send emails from your own emails so that we can know what staff members and their bosses think.

[aps]

IV is started for one cause, that is to eliminate the unfair country quota and speed up the green card process. Let us stick with that.Do not divert by introducing these kind of proposals.

Few weeks before there was a fight between eb3 and eb2 applicants on this forum. Now you are starting a new group which favors who has money. This is not good. Let us unite and focus on one goal. I am not supporting this idea. Please drop this.

aps

[rajeev_74]

Originally Posted by nixstor

As completely unrelated these two issues are (from a law maker's perspective) on a normal day, these are possibly those times when each of these issues can help the other.

IV has been discussing about the possibility of one for two solution (partial). The idea is to request congress to exempt EB applicants & their dependents from numerical limits of the Immigrant visas, if they buy a home. It is my belief that market sentiment is the most important thing in any financial market(s) and the housing prospects look pretty bleak. There are lot of members in the EB community that have NOT bought their own home, even though they could afford one because of the uncertainty with EB GC. IV's idea is to bridge the financial committees and judiciary committees in the House/Senate and see if corresponding Chairman/Ranking members are willing to listen. Things are moving so fast with the 700bn USD bail out plan and we will NOT have time to do things the normal way, through our counsel. We have to present this idea to the corresponding staff members of key members of congress (see list below) and see if this gets traction now or going forward.

Please do not bring EB-5 discussion/comparison here. The proposed partial solution is different from EB-5 in that EB-5 investors invest money and we are investing in our future with a genuine intention of making USA our permanent home.


If you already have a home, thats fine. Any such legislation will reduce the wait times in EB categories and we need housing markets to rebound for a safer economy before the ripple effects are felt every where.

Who to write to

Staff members(Chief of Staff, Legislative LA, Financial LA, Legislative Director) of Chairman/Ranking members of House/Senate Judiciary committee & Finance/Banking committee, Staff members of your representative and your senators. Please find staff members of the committees in the spreadsheet.

You can find your representative & senator staff members on this website.

Please use valid email addresses and NOT fictitious/junk mail. It undermines the whole purpose and our emails will be flagged by mail scanners / spam checkers as some thing similar to famous Nigeria bank account scams.


Email Subject: Proposal to alleviate current US Housing/economic crisis

Content/Message

SUMMARY

This proposal alleviates the current US economic crisis, by motivating the US high skilled, legal immigrant workers to purchase homes. The size of this immigrant population is approximately 800,000 individuals. This effort if successful would inject up to US$ 20Billion approximately into the economy (approximately US$ 100 Billion in houses sold across the country) , while at the same time directing this money into the root cause of the economic crisis – the illiquidity of the national housing market. The above calculation is done
assuming a median US home price of $212,400 and buyers making a down-payment of 20% of the cost of the home. Roughly estimating 400,000 buyers.

BACKGROUND

Undoubtedly, we are all devastated by the shake up on Wall Street in the past 15 days. Experts agree that the underpinning problem is the housing crisis caused by sub-prime mortgage loans. Many of us, who cannot afford our monthly mortgage payments are losing homes and putting them up for sale and foreclosure, which further adds to the crisis. At the same time, most of the Employment-based (EB) immigrant community would like to purchase homes and make the United States a permanent home for their families. These EB immigrants however, are living in a state of limbo, mostly in rental apartments because of the delays and uncertainties involved with the EB immigration procedure. The wait times in EB categories are exacerbated by the delays in processing by USCIS, even though eligible applicants have filed for Permanent Residency also known as Adjustment of Status. Such processing delays have resulted in the wastage of 218,000 immigrant visa numbers (Page 52 of USCIS Ombudsman Annual report 2007). The current Department of State visa bulletin shows 7+ years of wait times in certain categories. We strongly believe that legislation can be worked out in such a way that the housing markets all over the country can move towards recovery, while at the same time motivating the Green Card applicants to catalyze this recovery.

It should be noted that this proposal by no means brings more immigrant workers into the US. The workers in the EB, skilled category are already present in the US, doing skilled jobs that no US worker is available to do. They are part of the long queue of backlogged cases that USICIS will eventually process; however, this wait can take years and in that case could not be used as a tool to minimize the course of the current economic crisis.

SOLUTION

Congress can pass legislation that exempts EB green card applicants and their dependents from the numerical limits of visa numbers, provided applicant(s) have bought a home making 20% down payment on the sale price of the home, for a time period deemed necessary by the congress.


How can Employment based Immigrants help alleviate the housing problem?

(1) Employment based immigrants are highly skilled and are employed in occupations such as Software, IT, Health care, Energy, Finance, Education and Research & Development across the United States.

(2) Average income of these individuals/households is around 65,000/130,000 USD.

(3) All these Employment based immigrants have gone through Department of Labor’s recruiting process, which certifies that there is no willing, able and qualified US Citizen to do the job.

(4) Most of the Employment based immigrants have excellent credit history and good source of income to make the payments needed for their home mortgage.

(5) By requiring a 20% down payment from this group of buyers, Congress can directly channel this money to where it is need most – at the banks.

(6) Employment based green card applicants have been living in the United States for 6-8 years. Many of them have US graduate degrees in their fields of expertise. These applicants are well versed with the American culture and will not change the cultural landscape.

(7) Financial burden on US government and treasury will be reduced drastically if the glut of houses in the market decreases.


As a member of the community that wants to make the US its permanent home, I want to contribute to a solution that helps USA and US during these tough times. I sincerely believe that the 30 year commitment on mortgages by Employment based immigrants in the housing market, backed by solid, risk free mortgages can turn the down ward spiral in the housing market into a upward spiral.

END OF CONTENT

I feel this is is worth trying...

[sri1309]

I would still puruse removing quotas unconditionally. Not everyone will want to buy a house here. We can always propose buying houses will help fix housing crisis, but that shouldnt be a must.
Instead, I would suggest pay $5K or $10K to expedite it. I am sure many people want to take this. If we are talking about 500,000 people, then with a $5K premium processing, it will generate $2,500,000,000. Is that 2.5 billion.. Not bad. This step wioll not hurt many.

Sri.

[conchshell]

Nixtor, this idea is worth trying. If people who are buyinh house can be exempted from the VB quota, this will free up extra visas and will help those people who will not buy a house.