Immigration Visa Attorney Blog

One of the more interesting developments in U.S. immigration over the past few years is that Asians have overtaken Hispanics as the country's largest immigrant population.

Using percentage of foreign-born annual arrivals, the Pew Research Center reported that in the last three years Asia has became the top source of immigrants. 430,000 Asians came to the U.S. in 2010, a number that represents 36 percent of all new legal and illegal immigrants. In the same year there were 370,000 new Hispanics arrivals.

A recent article in Forbes detailed some of the reasons we have seen the shift. High growth rates in Asian countries, along with economic conditions in the U.S. and Mexico/Central America have combined to move the groups in opposite directions.

Continue reading "Asian immigration on the rise" »

Last month the Brookings Institute released a study on highly skilled immigrant workers and their demand based upon geographic region within the United States. What Brookings found was that the highly coveted STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workers who make up the majority of H-1B visas are more often finding a home in the Midwest.

Expected tech hubs such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose are still at the very top in terms of total H-1B requests. But when Brookings looked at the ranking of cities in terms of H-1B requests per 1,000 workers, it found the Midwest is one of the country's up-and-coming hotbed for these visas.

Continue reading "Increasing Demand for H-1B Workers in the Midwest" »

A poll conducted earlier this month seems to indicate the Obama Administration's decision to stop deporting certain undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children may not have helped boost his reputation on the issue among voters.

The Washington Post and ABC News conducted a poll asking whether or not voters approve of Obama's handling of the immigration issue. His rating was essentially identical to what it was at this point in 2010 and he received virtually the same favorable numbers as opponent Mitt Romney.

Less than 40 percent of adults polled said they approved of the job Obama was doing on issues related to immigration, while approximately half said they disapproved of his performance. Approximately 45 percent said they trusted Obama on the issue.

Voters in the eight swing states believed to be critical to the 2012 election (Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia, Vermont and Florida) polled at virtually identical numbers, thought the swing states had a slightly higher disapproval and trust percentages than the rest of the country.

Continue reading "President's new immigration policy not paying dividends with voters" »