H-1B Visa

Analytical Description

In the summer of 2005, my mother traveled on Korean Air to Honolulu, Hawaii, starting her life in the United States as a Chinese immigrant. The primary source offers a window into my mother’s immigration experience. Her story begins with this visa, issued to her by the United States’ Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Naturalization Services. She held a H-1B type visa, an employee-sponsored visa to employ foreign workers in “specialty occupations.” The visa was issued on March 20th, 2005. The document was valid for five years, but required annual renewals by her employer sponsor. My mother was employed by the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the university, she worked as a research scientist in the University’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Her work in the University of Hawaii at Manoa resulted in multiple publications in her field.

For my family many other Chinese American families, immigration was driven by policy reforms in the United States in the 1960s. In the years leading to the policy reforms, mounting pressure for equal rights yielded the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, a radical immigration reform policy, and the first to practice the principle of racial equality. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 lead to an influx of immigration from China, which shifted the demographic profile of Chinese Americans and drove significant demographic change in the United States. To some extent, Chinese Americans continued to concentrate in the West Coast and in urban areas, consistent with historical patterns. However, other areas that have historically received fewer Chinese immigrants witnessed phenomenal growth, such as Texas, Illinois, Florida, and Maryland. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 also created several preference visa categories, including my mother’s temporary H-1B type visa for skilled employment. Over the past three decades, U.S. demand for college-educated workers has grown at a far greater pace than changes in labor supply due to advancements in technology and shifts within the U.S. economy. The United States looked to high-skill immigration as a solution to meet high-skilled labor demand shocks, predominantly within science and engineering fields.

For most immigrants who wished to make their home in the United States, becoming a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) was the first step. This status allowed the person to live in the U.S. on a permanent basis and eventually to apply for U.S. citizenship. However there were significant backlogs for Chinese citizens applying for LPR status through employment-based channels. According to the most recent visa issuance data, in September 2017 the State Department was still processing applications for some employment preferences that had been filed by Chinese applicants in January 2002. Therefore many Chinese immigrants sought for other simpler ways of gaining LPR status, especially by being immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. Because spouses of U.S. citizens qualified as immediate relatives, cross-nativity marriages became common among immigrants. My mother was was a employee-based green card applicant who fell victim to the application processing backlog. As she approached her visa’s expiration date, she grew increasingly worried that she and I were bound to return to China. A little over a year before her visa expired, my mother married a white U.S. national. Cross-nativity marriage gave my mother easy access to social mobility. Upon marriage, she was able to easily gain permanent resident status and, soon after, eligibility for citizenship. As an LPR, many new career opportunities became available, especially those that involved highly dangerous pathogens.

Immigrants who arrive to the United States through H-1B visas made significant positive impacts on U.S. economy and technology. Namely, increases in H-1B admissions substantially increased rates of Indian and Chinese invention in cities that depended on the H-1B workforce. My mother had made contributions to the field of immunology. Because of her H-1B visa, she was able to conduct impactful research in the United States. However had she not gained LPR status before her temporary visa expired, she would have had to return to China and cease her research. Her rigorous academic work had provided opportunities to improve public health and to stimulate national economy, but the United States was going to deny my mother the right to remain in the country and pursue her American Dream. For a country that wants so badly to be the global superpower, it was oblivious, if not, indifferent, to the fact that it was losing the value that a brilliant scientist like my mother brings. This document from my mother reveals that her immigration experience is both reflective and divergent of the broader post-1965 Chinese American narrative.

Key Words

• H-1B
• Immigration
• Chinese American
• High-skilled labor
• Gender