Visas present business opportunities, challenges

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Dec 21, 2007 by Tampone, Kevin

SYRACUSE - Most companies looking at hiring someone from another country are discouraged before the process even starts.

But there's no reason to be, said Andrea Godfread-Brown, an attorney and associate director for the Slutzker Center for International Services at Syracuse University (SU).

"The process is a manageable one," she said. "If it's new to you, it is going to seem overwhelming, but if you have a plan and expert help, you can do it and it can work."

Godfread-Brown spoke Nov. 29 during an event on helping companies access the talent pool of international students at schools like SU and others.

About 40 people attended the event, called "Connecting to Graduate Engineering Talent and the H1-B Visa Process," which was held at the Syracuse Technology Garden.

A major piece of getting such talent to work for U.S. companies is the legal minefield associated with the visa process.

And while the process of applying for the H-1B visas that allow those from other countries to work in the United States is manageable, the outcome is unpredictable, Godfread-Brown said. That part can be daunting for companies, which sponsor the foreign employees for the visas, but speakers at the event said the potential benefits outweigh the challenges.

One of the reasons the outcome is so unpredictable is that the demand for H-1 B visas far outpaces the supply. The visas are capped, with some exceptions, at 65,000 per year.

In recent years, the government has been receiving 140,000to 150,000 applications for those slots, Godfread-Brown says.

"It can be daunting, but I'm here to tell you the process is worth it in the end," said Lawrence Ames, human-resources manager at Critical Technologies, a technology-development and consulting company based in Utica. "There is a big payoff."

Critical Technologies sponsored one of its employees for an H-1B visa and is now helping that worker obtain a green card. Ames said it's important to have a plan for the process and to keep the lines of communication between employer and employee open.

He also said a good attorney is important. Even if the company, the employee, and attorney work perfectly together, there will still be surprises along the way, he added.

If companies automatically discount hiring international students because of cost or the difficulty of the process, they're turning a blind eye to a valuable resource, said Rajiv Kalra, chief administrative officer of USBeveragenet, a Syracuse-based developer of inventory-control systems for beverages. Kalra, a graduate of SU's Martin J. Whitman School of Management, is working for USBeveragenet on an H-1B visa himself.

He has also been helping one of the company's other employees through the same process.

Kalra said he handled much of his visa work himself because USBeveragenet was so young when it sponsored him. He too advised getting a lawyer involved early.

"The process was very smooth for me," he said. "It's worth every dollar you spend on it."

Improved immigration policy could help the region retain more of its college talent, said Frank Caliva, director of talent initiatives for the Metropolitan Development Association of Syracuse and Central New York. Current policy has a negative effect on economic development, he added.

There's certainly no shortage of graduate-level, international students local companies could take tap, said David DiMaggio, program manager for the Industry Co-op Program at SU's CASE Center. SU alone has some 2,000 international students, 1,500 of whom are graduate students.

About 800 are studying either engineering and computer science or information science and technology, fields that are often a recruiting challenge for local employers.

"We are blessed with this population," DiMaggio said. "As an employer, you always want to hire the best people. No matter what they look like. No matter where they come from."