Data Driven Decision Making - Leveraging Recent U.S. Government Visa and Immigration Statistics
The new USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub now provides full-year statistics that you can use to better anticipate impacts to your organization’s immigration programs. RFE rates are at historical highs for H and L petitions. The number of nonimmigrant visas issued by U.S. Consulates dropped 7% the past two fiscal years. While immigrant visa issuance by U.S. Consulates has declined overall by 5%, employment-sponsored visas increased 14% in the past fiscal year. The number of green cards issued has dropped by 11.5%, excluding refugees, according to new data released by the Department of Homeland Security.
Learning Objectives:
Understand what statistics signal in U.S. immigration trends.
Evaluate how and which numbers affect your immigration programs.
Determine how to use data to anticipate impacts on your organization.
Plan how to strategize around the statistical trends.
Lynn O'Brien
Lynn is a Senior Associate Attorney in the Northern Virginia office of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. She concentrates her practice on business immigration matters including nonimmigrant and immigrant visa issues, advising clients on every step of the process. She represents clients in various industries so that US employers can obtain the talent they need when they need it. Although Lynn has experience with diverse visas types, she devotes most of her time to L-1, H-1B, E-2, and TN processing. Of course, she also enjoys arguing with the government if a Request for Evidence is received in a USCIS filing. She frequently speaks on immigration related topics- including on the unpredictable immigration environment, PERM, and on Consular Processing of L-1 and B-1 visas. Lynn has also successfully handled complex audit requests from the Department of Labor and uses any resources available to zealously represent her clients.
Prior to joining BAL, Lynn served as a Senior Consultant on the USCIS Transformation project, working with leaders and subject matter experts within USCIS. She also served as the Former Chair and Founder of the Immigration Section of the Maryland State Bar Association.
Stuart Anderson
Stuart Anderson is Executive Director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a non-partisan public policy research organization focusing on trade, immigration and related issues based in Arlington, Virginia. From August 2001 to January 2003, Stuart served as Executive Associate Commissioner for Policy and Planning and Counselor to the Commissioner at the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Before that Stuart spent four and a half years on Capitol Hill on the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, first for Senator Spencer Abraham and then as Staff Director of the subcommittee for Senator Sam Brownback. Prior to that, Stuart was Director of Trade and Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., where he produced reports on the military contributions of immigrants and the role of immigrants in high technology. He has an M.A. from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Political Science from Drew University. Stuart has published articles in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and other publications. He is the author of the book Immigration (Greenwood, 2010).
Jeffrey Gorsky
Before Jeff joined Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP as Senior Counsel, Jeff served as Chief of the Legal Advisory Opinion section of the Visa Office in the Department of State. For over a decade, he led the team and provided legal guidance to consular officers worldwide on visa matters.
During his tenure in Washington, DC, Jeff was a trusted advisor to senior policymakers and worked closely with counterparts at the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Justice. He assisted the Department of Justice on civil and criminal visa matters and testified for the government as an expert witness on visas. He twice earned the State Department’s Superior Honor Award.
Jeff also served in various positions at US consulates around the world and, before joining the government, worked as a criminal defense lawyer.
As Senior Counsel with Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP Jeff works in the Washington, D.C. office. The government relations group helps to shape immigration policy, regulations and legislation and offers strategic guidance on working with government agencies. Jeff is instrumental in overseeing the firm’s compliance and government affairs practices.
Michele D. Frangella
Based in Boston, Michele is the North America Immigration Lead for Publicis Groupe, the world’s third largest communications group operating in over 100 countries with a mobile workforce of over 80,000 people. She is responsible for developing and executing immigration compliance and case strategy for North America, overseeing the delivery of immigration case management services for the U.S. and Canada and for driving the immigration program expansion throughout Latin America. Michele’s subject matter expertise is relied upon to evolve and scale the company’s immigration program to meet the challenges of a complex immigration environment.
In addition to Michele’s experience leading the North America Immigration Team, she was a U.S. immigration attorney whose wide-ranging experience includes working for international law firms, the Department of Justice and a nonprofit migration agency.