US President Barack Obama.
Photo: Reuters
Obama's immigration reform benefits Israelis
Changes to the US immigration policy announced by President Obama will have far-reaching effects on Israelis wishing to work or move to the US.
Sweeping changes to the United States' immigration policy, announced by President Barack Obama on Thursday, will have far-reaching effects on Israelis wishing to work or move across the pond.
The wide-reaching executive plan would help thousands of undocumented Israeli immigrants, specifically Israeli parents with American children. However the major benefit of the new policy is the ease of the visa process for innovative entrepreneurs and High-Tech companies.
President Barack Obama on immigration reform. (צילום: רויטרס)
Obama’s new immigration plan would guide the Immigration Service to issue new guidelines that allow both the owner of a master’s degree in science and technology and those with extraordinary ability in these areas to receive an accelerated green card independently, without the need to obtain sponsorship from an American counterpart.
Supporters of Obama's immigration reform outside of the White House in Washington D.C. (Photo: Associated Press)
According to President Obama, giving green cards for academics and graduates of the field of science prevents a “brain loss” of talented foreign citizens who work or study temporarily in the US. It is expected to take a few months for the new regulations to be implemented.
Entrepreneurial Visas
Today, entrepreneurial start-ups suffer from a lack of visa approvals. There are no visas that are start-up friendly. As a result, many start-up companies are unable to meet the expectations of investors to come to Boston or San Francisco in order to ensure the success of their projects.
With a creative loophole, the new immigration policy would allow start-up companies to come to the US as part of a provision in the law intended for urgent humanitarian cases.
President Obama justifies the use of this provision for start-up entrepreneurs on the grounds that it is a US national interest to open the barriers of entry to foreign entrepreneurs, which is no less critical than the American interest to enable entry in respect of a humanitarian issue.
Liam Schwartz, an Israeli lawyer who specializes on immigration laws in the US, explained that the provision allowing entrance to start-up companies would focus on two groups: those who have already received substantial investment from American investors and those who have not yet received investments but have developed technologies that could create jobs in the US.
Undocumented Immigrants
Obama’s immigration reform will also benefit undocumented Israeli immigrants in the US. While it is unknown how many of these cases exist in the US, the estimate is that there are between 3,000 and 4,000 such cases.
Israeli undocumented workers in the US suffer from the inability to get a worker’s permit, and therefore live in constant fear of deportation. These undocumented Israeli immigrants must miss funerals, weddings, and bar mitzvahs with the knowledge that if they choose to leave the US, there is no return.
The new immigration reforms would slightly alleviate the situation for certain Israeli undocumented immigrants. As part of the reforms, an Israeli undocumented immigrant that has been in the US since January 1st, 2010 will be able to receive a workers permit and most likely the ability to travel outside the country on the condition that they gave birth to a child before the executive order was given (November 20th, 2014).
Children of Undocumented Workers
Another change introduced by Obama as part of the new reforms benefit Israelis who arrived to the US with their parents as children with a six-month tourist visa and never left. From now on, these children will not be deported from the US and will even be eligible for a work permit - on the condition they arrived before the age of 16 and have been in the US since January 1st, 2010.
According to Schwartz, President Obama believes it is unjustified to deport undocumented immigrants who grew up in the US, particularly children who were in the US illegally because their parents sidestepped the laws and grew up in the states as Americans and identify themselves as American in all respects.
Foreign Students
As of today, foreign students can engage in practical training for a limited period after graduation. The Obama immigration plan extends the amount of time given to these individuals to work in the US after graduation, especially for people who completed their studies in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
According to data released this week, 2,457 Israelis have studied in the US with over half of them completing a masters degree or higher form of education. Workers permits in the new immigration policy will allow Israeli students to create start-up companies in the US after their studies.
L-1 Visa
The L-1 visa, the main visa needed for Israeli workers who wish to move to the US to conduct business, is hardly available because of quotas – preventing many Israeli entrepreneurs from fulfilling their dream of working in the US.
Many Israeli tech companies realized that the problems with the L-1 visa are exasperated when it relates to moving engineers and other employees who have specialized knowledge to the US. The reason for which being that there are no clear definitions as to what is considered “specialized knowledge.”
For Israeli employers, the discrepancy resulted in a severe lack of consistency in decisions with respect to requests for visas, and uncertainty regarding their ability to staff development projects and programs in the United States.
The Obama immigration plan requires the leadership of the US Immigration Service to issue new guidelines that will clarify the term “specialized knowledge” for once and for all.
Perry Novotny, an Israeli lawyer who is a member of both the Israel and New York Bar Associations, specializes in US immigration law and said, “President Obama has joined the efforts of previous administrations to create immigration reform and thereby effectively ‘clean the slate’ of undocumented workers in the US in certain cases. There is no doubt that Obama’s plan is expected to significantly facilitate the Israelis living in the country illegally, but the big news comes of course with the relief for entrepreneurs and talented employees, including many Israelis who suffered greatly in recent years from quotas and other difficulties in the area of immigration, in a move that will of course also help the US economy.”
