The H1B Visa versus the TN (Nafta) Visa

Industry periodicals are starting to explore the coming H1B crisis... or potential crisis... depending on who you read. Lou Dobbs used to try and make us all think our economic free fall started because of H1B's and illegal immigration. He didn't last too long. But he did notice a problem with the H1B's and the misuse and mistrust that swelled inside US corporations.

H1B's were intended to bring in highly skilled workers from outside the US only when a comparable US worker with that skill was not available. That makes perfect sense - still does. But US companies took advantage of the program and parachuted in tens of thousands of workers on the H1B, for less payroll cost, without considering that perfectly cabable US workers might also want those jobs. So Immigration Reform will incorporate some much needed changes to the H1B/L1 programs that have a negative effect on US employment trends.

The TN Visa is different. The traveling worker provisions built inside the NAFTA treaty give the US a powerful global advantage that only helps the US employment equation. In simple terms, the benefit of sourcing talent from Canada or Mexico is that as we help our neighbor... we help ourselves. NAFTA was setup in order to create a trading group that would effectively compete with the European Union. The alternative? If we can't effective compete on that level we will lose countless jobs in the US and that's fairly horrible news.

Also, Illegal immigration, in my opinion, will become less of an issue when Mexico's economy becomes less embattled. And the US can help in that fight by partnering more with Mexican and Canadian companies. Trading resources, sharing knowledge workers, collaborating on education and trade goals. That's my opinion.