Free Republic

Quote: NO VISA REQUIREMENT FOR TRAVEL FROM TURKEY TO JORDAN I'm pretty sure the brothers think they can use this to their advantage... Posted on 06 December 2009 @ 13:17

Bring up the topic of economic stimulus and job creation, and you won't hear much about immigration. If the topic does arise, it's usually because somebody believes foreigners are taking U.S. jobs. It's time to bring the immigration question squarely into the debate over jobs. A change to immigration policy could help create jobs and rev up economic growth. It's a change that wouldn't be hard to bring about. I'm talking about the establishment of a Startup Founders Visa program. The program would make it easier for those with great ideas and the desire to start a company to live...

The European Parliament is scheduled to give Wednesday the 'green light' on annulment of Schengen visas for Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro as of December 19, Slovenian MEP Tanja Fajon, who prepared the visa liberalization report for Western Balkan countries, told MIA. Fajon said she was certain that the European Parliament would adopt the report, including Slovenia's proposal for annulment of Schengen visas on December 19 instead of the European Commission proposal of January 1. "I believe it is very realistic to expect that citizens of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro will be able to travel freely in the EU as of...

Sudhir Kapoor, 25, got the call from his employer late last year. It was bad news: The economic downturn meant the technology company had to let him go. Laxmi Aiyar, who is returning to India after she was laid off by her company, says, "It is Indian talents who made America rich and prosperous. Now, they are throwing us out like a can of Pepsi." Since nearly 40 percent of all H-1B visa holders are from India , the mounting layoffs are hitting Indian professionals particularly hard. ....Lives have been disrupted, and some said they were under tremendous stress to...

Thanks to a special emailer for pointing to this article: “He” Josy Joseph / DNASunday, November 8, 2009 2:38 IST SNIPPET: “New Delhi: The two terror suspects arrested in the US for plotting to strike targets in Denmark and India spent significant time in Mumbai before the 26/11 attacks, authoritative sources have told DNA. While one of them operated a visa agency in Mumbai for almost two years until the latter part of 2008, the other suspect spent 10 days in the city just days before the terror strike last November.” SNIPPET: “According to available information, David Coleman Headley, the...

DALLAS — Seventy million dollars worth of federal, state and city funds are pouring into the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Supporters hope the span will be a signature for the city. But it may be remembered for something else, because the key jobs in its construction -- tens of thousands of man hours of work — are going to Italians. On the construction site in the Trinity River bottoms, an American inspector told News 8: "If you don't speak Italian, it's going to be tough to communicate." In broken English, a man who appeared...

The Wall Street Journal has a front page story today on that portrays a sharp decline in the number of H-1B visas. The paper reports that "only 46,700" applications had been made for 65,000 H-1B visas available. Intel's director of work-force policy and manager of the firm's immigration policies, Jenifer Verdery, proclaims that, "The fact that the 65,000-visa cap hasn't been reached this year shows that the market will temper demand when necessary" The spin here is that the worst economy since the Great Depression has caused industry to reduce its use of H-1B visa from every last visa possible...

Note: The following text is a quote: Beware of bogus websites! (30/10/2009) The UK Border Agency is the official UK Government authority providing information and guidance for visa applicants and for making decisions on visa applications for the United Kingdom. We operate through the following official websites: UK Border Agency corporate website: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk UK Border Agency Visa Services website: www.ukvisas.gov.uk UK Border Agency Online Application Service (Visa4UK): www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk Local websites operated by our commercial partners, CSC Worldbridge and VFS Global, and British Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates around the world. We would advise you to avoid all other websites claiming...

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Executive in Residence at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa. I spent Columbus Day in Sunnyvale, fittingly, meeting with a roomful of new arrivals. Well, relatively new. They were Indians living in Silicon Valley. The event was organized by the Think India Foundation, a think-tank that seeks to solve problems which Indians face. When introducing the topic of skilled immigration, the discussion moderator, Sand Hill Group founder M.R. Rangaswami...

Note: The following SNIPPET is a quote: Head of English Language School Sentenced to Federal Prison for Immigration Fraud Conspiracy Songwoo Shim Obtained Fraudulent Certification for School and Used School as Front to Issue Fraudulent Immigration Documents to Illegal Aliens ATLANTA, GA—SONGWOO SHIM, 48, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Charles A. Pannell, Jr. to serve three years, 10 months in federal prison for conspiring to encourage and induce aliens to reside unlawfully in the United States and for manufacturing fraudulent visa documents. Acting United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said, “This defendant obtained approval...

EL PASO -- José Daniel González was living the sweet life in America. He bought the $365,000 two-story Mediterranean with the tile roof and swimming pool. He started a trucking company, was raising a family. But on a Friday night in May, he was executed in his front yard -- eight shots, tight pattern, close range. According to police detectives, González knew the man who ordered his killing. He also knew the man who stood on his lawn and watched him die...A gangland-style slaying is no big news across the river in Ciudad Juarez, where more than 1,300 people have...

Diplomacy: The U.S. revoked visas of four Honduran officials, claiming that a coup occurred there. But if they could travel, the Hondurans could educate Americans otherwise. So why are we trying to silence them?Nobody pushes "dialogue" or "citizen diplomacy" more than the U.S. Department of State. So how can it justify revoking the visas on these Hondurans in what a department spokesman confirmed Tuesday as "a turning of the screw." The Hondurans targeted are the very ones whose presence would be valuable to the U.S. if it means to understand the constitutional action that necessitated the removal of President Mel...

A supporter of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya rests at a shelter... Supporters of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya rest at a shelter... A supporter of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya sits under an umbrella... OCOTAL, Nicaragua (AP) - The U.S. government said Tuesday it has revoked the diplomatic visas of four Honduran officials, stepping up pressure on coup-installed leaders who insist they can resist international demands to restore the ousted president. The U.S. State Department did not name the four, but a Honduran official said they included the Supreme Court magistrate who ordered the arrest of ousted President Manuel...

Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- As unemployment among tech workers increases with the recession, the U.S. government is raising broad questions as part of a federal case over H-1Bs about the connection of visa fraud to the unemployment of IT workers. The government's interest in H-1B fraud-related unemployment turned up in court filings in a case in U.S. District Court in Iowa against a New Jersey IT firm, Visions Systems Group in South Plainfield, NJ, which was indicted in February on visa-related fraud charges. Visions Systems was included in a sweep that led to arrests of some 11 people in six...

Richard Lemos went to authorities to report a crime, believing he was doing the responsible thing. In return for his efforts, he was given a deportation order. Lemos, originally from Uruguay, is one of 28 undocumented immigrants living in Utah who are being deported after testifying against a woman who allegedly made tens of thousands of dollars scamming people desperate to find a legal way to stay in the country. It is a classic illustration, critics say, of one of the pernicious realities of current U.S. immigration policy: People living here without proper documentation are exploited by criminals emboldened by...

The immigration bottom line: We need more legal avenues.

"A bipartisan group of Senators have introduced S. 388, which would extend an exemption to the cap on H-2B workers for three years. The legislation was introduced by Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and has 24 cosponsors. H-2B visas are given to seasonal employees in non-agricultural related fields that experience high-peak times such as amusement parks and ski resorts. The Immigration and Nationality Act limits the number of aliens on H-2B visas in the United States to 66,000 per year, but the Save Our Small and Seasonal Business Act would exempt any H-2B visa holders from the...

Federal officials said this morning they have indicted an Afghan national for lying about his alleged ties to terrorists in a bid to fraudulently obtain a U.S. passport. Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, 34, who was arrested without incident this morning at his Tustin residence by members of the joint terrorism task force, was named in a five-count indictment returned Feb. 11 by a federal grand jury. The indictment, unsealed this morning, alleges Niazi hid associations with “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” groups including Al Qaeda, Hizb-i-Islami and the Taliban, when he

Leave it to a brainy Indian to come up with the cheapest and surest way to stimulate our economy: immigration. “All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans,” said Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper. “We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate — no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our...

The Senate has passed an $838 billion economic stimulus package with a vote of 61-37. The Senate bill as it stands allows for the hiring of illegal aliens. The House and Senate will now confer to come up with a unified proposal that will then need approval from both the House and Senate before being sent to the President. Both the Senate Democrats and Republicans have named their conferees, which