Visa Holders Hoping for Immigration Fix

"A pain."

That is how Duke biology researcher Emilie Lefevre, of France, described the process of applying for an H-1B visa.

She's one of 305 people on the Duke campus who hold these non-immigrant visas that allow U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, such as doing research at a university.

Most of these scholars are eagerly awaiting immigration reforms that passed the U.S. Senate on June 27 and will soon be debated in the U.S. House of Representatives.  

The Immigration Innovation Act of 2013 would induce a broad overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, including allowing more H-1B visas.  For Duke students and employees with visas, it also could mean an easier path to citizenship.

Lefevre, a postdoctoral scholar studying microscopic fungi at Duke, originally came to the U.S. on a J-1 visa in 2007. Her J-1 visa expired after five years, which required her to leave the country and go back to France in 30 days. So she applied for an H-1B visa in April 2012 that would allow her to stay on as a postdoc. Lefevre said the process took months, even after her employer at Duke got it expedited, and it cost her and her employer more than $1,500.

"If I didn't do that I wouldn't have had my H-1B on time to start my job," Lefevre said. And that would have meant returning to France.

Lefevre is just one of the many foreign-born workers at Duke that must go through the waiting game of applying for a visa. And every year more international scholars come here to work as the demand for them grows.

According to Duke's visa services statistics, there were 1,685 employees and 3,004 students on some type of visa last year.

Caroline Usher, administrative coordinator in the biology department, said she has handled more visas than she can count. She said that the number of students on visas has increased exponentially since she has been here, particularly Chinese scholars who make up a quarter of the foreign-born visa holders on campus.

In recent years, nearly half of the doctoral candidates and more than half of the post-doctorates in science and engineering at U.S. universities were foreign-born, according to National Immigration Forum.

"I think there is a greater interest abroad in studying in the U.S., and China is becoming more accepting in allowing people to come to the U.S. and study," Usher said.

However, Shengrong Ye, a Chinese postdoc in Chemistry and an F-1 student-visa holder in Optional Practical Training (OPT), says that China now wants its natives to come back and work in China after they graduate. Ye, a father of two children who were born in the U.S., does not want go back when his visa runs out.

"(My wife and I) kind of like it here," Ye said. He added that it would be tough for his daughters to make the transition to China after living in the U.S. all of their lives.

"We have a family here and it's a good place for us," Ye said. "Another thing is we want to prove ourselves here first."

The bill now before the House would allow students like Ye to apply for green cards while on their student visas. It would eliminate the cap on the number of individuals per country that can enter the U.S. The number of H-1B visas would increase from 65,000 to 115,000.

Chris Simmons, Duke's associate vice president for federal relations, said the immigration reforms would create opportunities for foreign-born students.

"These are Duke students. They are no different than a student in China, or India or South Africa or North Carolina or California in a sense that we want what is best for them," Simmons said. And if they think it is best for them to stay in the United States and work and contribute to our economy, we want to help them do that.

"We want to make sure that they have opportunities and options," Simmons said. "We want that for all students and if there's something we can do to influence the law so that's possible for more of our students, then we are going to be supportive."

Some fear the bill could stall in a Republican-led House because leaders have been resistant to Senate legislation, and suggest that the bill should put more emphasis on strengthening the country's borders.

Lefevre and Ye will be watching closely to see what happens in the House.

After studying for a year, Lefevre now wants to transfer to the Pratt School of Engineering, but in order to do so she must reapply for the H-1B visa before her biology contract ends, a task she says she is not looking forward to.

And if things go wrong she's once again faced with the possibility of having to go back to France.

"It is very stressful because with the H-1B, if you don't get your paperwork back, even if your employer agrees to hire you, then you have to leave the country," she said. "The day your work contract ends, you have to take a plane and get out."

Ye, who must apply for the H-1B visa when his F-1 expires, echoed Lefevre's sentiments.

"I'm a little bit worried about the funding situation because not a lot of professors have the money," Ye said.

When he made a pitch to get the bill passed in a June 11 appearance at the White House, President Obama stressed how broken the system was.

"Right now our immigration system invites the best and brightest from all over the world to come and study at our top universities and then once they finish, once they have gotten the training they need to build a new invention or create a new business, our system too often tells them to go back home, so that other countries can reap the benefits, the new jobs, the new businesses the new industries," Obama said. "That's not smart. But that's the system we have today."

Though educated in France, Lefevre feels that America is her home now and she plans to eventually apply for her green card. She said the thought of not living here permanently is disheartening.

"I'm willing to pay all the money for a green card out of my pocket just to be more relaxed about that," Lefevre said. "I've been here for almost six years. I have a life here, and all of a sudden if I don't get approved, I have to give up everything and go back to France where I don't have a life anymore."