Companies regional call for more foreign workers

By Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio March 3, 2008 Listening to audio functionality On April first, 65,000 Americans work visas go up for grabs. The H1B visa allows American companies to hire foreign workers. Over the past two years, the number of visas has fallen short of demand for workers. Some companies in our region say they are losing business because the barriers of immigration. Moorhead, Minn. - farm equipment is a hot seller in Russia. In fact, Howard Dahl has more business than it can handle. His company builds manufacturing Fargo sugar beet and other equipment farm equipment. Countries like Ukraine and Kazakhstan markets are booming. No wonder Dahl needed a lawyer with a particular expertise. "It will be the country that beats others to the best of the best in terms of immigrants, is the one who wins the battle for economic growth." -- David Chapman "Each contract is half Russian, half English. On the Russian side, a side English, "says Dahl. A few years ago, Howard Dahl found a young Russian lawyer college in Moorhead. He hired Nikolai Riebov to help expand the Russian market. "He just made our job run a lot smoother and enabled us to do business more effectively," says Dahl. But one year later Riebov visa renewal was rejected. Dahl said U.S. immigration was not convinced he needed to hire a foreign worker. But Dahl said a lawyer fluent in Russian is not easy to find in Fargo, he appealed the decision. "We had to go through an application process, has spent approximately $ 7000 in legal fees. He had to return to Russia for six months, "says Dahl. Riebov won an appeal to return to the US Ironically, it is now in operation of a new office of the company Fargo has opened in Russia. Howard Dahl says that one example of how immigration restrictions affect his company. He also does not have enough welders to construct farm equipment fast enough to meet demand. He said that the demand for qualified welders outstripping supply is far in North Dakota. "We could use 500 welders from anywhere in the world," says Dahl. "Between the oil patch and those of us in the manufacturing sector, we could go to 500 people here and they have a job tomorrow." But bring skilled workers from other countries could be a formidable challenge for a small company, if the supply of H1B visas is exhausted. Magnification Saturday Rangaswamy Rangaswamy Saturday staked his business on skilled programmers in India. The California computer programmer has started a new venture Fargo because of the quality of life and the lower cost of doing business. The work is coming in. But workers are not. Rangaswamy applied work visas for April 25. Each request cost him about $ 1,000. Highly skilled programmers in India, were recruited to come to Fargo, but there were so many requests, a lottery was used to determine who would get the visas. In the lottery of visas, all applications were chosen. Rangaswamy plans to build a new office this year, but he pushed his business plan back a year, and worries he may lose some contracts if it can not find a way to get the job done. "We do not know what the quota is about, and do it accurately and for what purpose does it exist? It's really the businessman does not benefit the United States," says Rangaswamy . Rangaswamy could also hire American citizens. There are skilled programmers looking for work. "But the question is, who comes to Fargo, and at what price? $ 50000 in Fargo is equal to $ 110000 in New York," says Rangaswamy. "Demographically the choice is not very attractive to someone who is sitting in Chicago to move to Fargo and start working here. That is the biggest challenge here. " Rangaswamy claims that his plan is to bring skilled programmers in India, and then hire recent college graduates, which could be supervised. Rangaswamy said he will apply for the highest number of working visas 35 next month. In fact, it envisages the delivery from the paperwork California, on April 1, in order to beat the expected flood of applications for the 65,000 visas available. He believes that the future of his company is at stake. Proponents of immigration caps say entrepreneurs like Sam Rangaswamy are just trying to take advantage of foreign labour cheap. Fargo attorney David Chapman says it is a legitimate argument. But immigration law specialist says she is not supported by the cases he sees. "The argument that they are taking jobs from Americans just does not hold water with me," says Chapman. "I saw advertising and publicity for businesses and advertise that they get jobs and resumes that are not qualified or may not receive resumes at all. They simply can not find people to fill the jobs. " Chapman said for many companies, it works with immigrants are the only source of skilled employees. It supports many of the best trained programmers and engineers live in countries like India and China. "I think in the long term, it's going to be the country that beats others to the best of the best in terms of immigrants is the one who wins the battle for economic growth," says Chappman. The immigration issue involves more than high-tech and manufacturing workers. Laurens Robinson Fargo works for a company that sells products in the international markets. Robinson came to the United States from South Africa in the early 1990's with his wife, who is a doctor. He has lived in Texas for several years and worked as a general manager of a large national company. Then, a few years ago, his wife took a job in Fargo. When he found a job in international trade, he needed to apply for a new visa. His application was rejected because the immigration officials did not believe his training corresponding to his new duties. He said an appeal would take at least a year. "What does a company do in the meantime? And what do you as an individual do in the meantime?" Robinson asked. "You can stay at home and volunteering at the Army hi, or your church, or you can go home, (South Africa), which is no longer home because your family is here." Robinson has chosen to stay at home for one year. His visa was eventually restored, but the process cost several thousand dollars. Robinson says that international trade small company that hired him also lost business because they could not find a replacement for its expertise in international affairs. Fargo owner of the farm equipment Howard Dahl, says it will be to deny contracts this year because his company can not develop fast enough to meet demand. He said that immigrant workers are more a solution. But it also includes the political reality that increased immigration is not likely to occur in a presidential election year.
Arabic to EnglishChinese to EnglishChinese (Simplified to Traditional)Chinese (Traditional to Simplified)Dutch to EnglishEnglish to ArabicEnglish to Chinese (Simplified)English to Chinese (Traditional)English to DutchEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to RussianEnglish to SpanishFrench to EnglishFrench to GermanGerman to EnglishGerman to FrenchGreek to EnglishItalian to EnglishJapanese to EnglishKorean to EnglishPortuguese to EnglishRussian to EnglishSpanish to English