Immigration red tape delaying tech hires

updated 2:09 p.m. ET June 25, 2006

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The latest fights over immigration have focused on who should get a place in line for a legal life in the United States. But the real agony, says Tien Bui, comes when you finally get in line.

Bui, who came to the U.S. as a Vietnamese refugee and is now an engineer for Boeing Inc., can’t take the career-boosting position he’s been offered because his citizenship application is lodged somewhere inside the Department of Homeland Security. With green card in hand, Bui has waited patiently since 2003 for his fingerprints to clear background checks, a process that’s become more involved since Sept. 11.

But if Congress approves a new guest worker program, the overall waiting period for Bui and the millions of legal immigrants like him could grow even longer, says a report by the Government Accountability Office.

President Bush mandated that by September of this year, cases in DHS’s immigration backlog should be processed in six months or less, a deadline the agency is optimistic it can meet.

But a spider web of agencies — including the Department of Labor, the Department of State and the Federal Bureau of Investigation — are also involved in evaluating and approving legal immigration applications.

If there are more petitions to process, the overall delays could increase, experts say. At DHS alone, some skilled foreign workers must wait five years to apply for a green card, something American engineering companies say is harming their competitive edge.

“I truly think if Albert Einstein were in my office in 2006, he would be saying ’I’m going to Canada rather than wait any longer,”’ said Judy Bourdeau, a Kansas City immigration attorney who is filing employment petitions for several Fortune 500 companies.

Bui got his green card through his parents, who came to the U.S. as refugees, fleeing Vietnam once the communists took over. After excelling at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Boeing offered him a job. But each time his bosses have tapped him to work on the company’s exclusive defense contracts, Bui said he’s had to turn down the offer because he hasn’t yet been naturalized as a U.S. citizen, a requirement for the position.

“I believe I belong in the United States, because it’s the first country I really know,” said Bui, 28, a structural engineer in the company’s Everett, Wash. plant. “I’m just disappointed because I can’t broaden my options.”

That also has consequences for some American corporations. Overland Park, Kan.-based engineering firm Black & Veatch Corp. says it has lost skilled foreign workers because their employment-based immigration applications took so long to clear.

MORE FROM U.S. BUSINESS

U.S. business Section Front

Billboards try to make light of recession gloom CIT’s bailout denial raises bankruptcy threat Strong bank results mask wider weakness Madoff accountant may be cutting plea deal Paulson defends response to economic crisis L.A. leads the list of most congested cities Goldman Sachs’ winning formula works again Madoff admitted to North Carolina prison Goldman posts bigger-than-expected profit Exxon makes first big biofuel investment U.S. business Section Front   Add U.S. business headlines to your news reader: