Thousands of green cards are about to go to waste, leaving Google, Microsoft and other tech companies fuming — and pushing the Biden administration to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Axios: Tech workers have waited years for green cards that will grant them permanent legal status in the U.S. — but because of pandemic-related processing delays, they will have to wait even longer. The U.S. makes a certain number of family-based and employment-based green cards available each fiscal year. […] Google and Microsoft are among the companies that have been urging federal officials to find a way to save the roughly 80,000 remaining employment-based green cards set to expire Sept. 30. Google says only 13% of its candidate applications filed since last October have been approved.
“The idea that we will leave tens of thousands of these applications unfilled at a time when businesses around the country are having a hard time finding qualified workers seems illogical,” Google senior vice president of global affairs Kent Walker told Axios. “So we’re really trying to encourage people to come together to fix this issue.”
What they’re saying: Google and Microsoft say they have thousands of employees and their families awaiting green cards. “We have congressionally authorized numbers available right now that can help a significant number of people trapped in the backlog move to permanent residence,” Jack Chen, associate general counsel at Microsoft, told Axios. “But without a fix, those numbers go into the shredder at the end of the month. It’s a huge missed opportunity.” Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook last week wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on behalf of the Business Roundtable to press the issue.
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot