How Skilled Immigrants Found a Voice

Grassroots group Immigration Voice has helped tech workers organize and score victories in Washington

by Moira Herbst

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It was in December, 2005, when Aman Kapoor reached a boiling point. The computer programmer at Florida State had been waiting four years for his green card—the key to permanent residency in the U.S.—and he had been obliged to stay in the same job at the same pay the entire time that he waited. Then a U.S. House-Senate conference failed to move forward with legislation to relieve the growing green-card delays, dashing the India native's hopes once again.

Kapoor decided to start a Web site for frustrated immigrants, called Immigration Voice. While there were community message boards and the like online, he wanted a place where skilled workers waiting for their green cards could share their ideas and frustrations. He also hoped that there would be some sort of collective power from the skilled immigrant community if they got organized. "Misery loves company, and I was looking for a way to channel all the frustration we were sharing with each other," says Kapoor. "Instead of feeling hopeless, we decided to use our right to association and push reform of the broken system together."

Making Themselves Heard

Legal, highly skilled immigrants say they have felt overlooked in the immigration debate, which has focused largely on the fate of 12 million illegal unskilled workers. But this week a formerly diffuse and quiet group made its first concrete mark in Washington in helping push the U.S. government to reverse an early July decision refusing applications to speed up green-card processing (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/18/07, "A Green Light on the Road to Green Cards," and 7/17/07, "The Gandhi Protests Pay Off").

In just 19 months, Kapoor's once-fledgling Web forum has become a powerful political force. In the days leading up to the U.S. government's decision to allow green-card applicants to apply for the next phase of processing, Immigration Voice and other advocacy groups met with senior White House officials to share their concerns. U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), whose district includes Silicon Valley, has been outspoken in her support of those stuck in the green-card backlog, and she has pledged to ensure that the U.S. government keeps its promise to speed up green-card processing.

An Active Membership

Immigration Voice (immigrationvoice.org) now has a membership of 21,000 people in the green-card queue. The queue is swelling into the hundreds of thousands because only 9,800 green cards are allotted to each country each year. Tens of thousands of visa holders from countries including India and China are left waiting for years. Through the Web site, Immigration Voice members share ideas and strategies, provide words of support for each other, and organize local meetings.

In 2006, the nonprofit group raised $200,000, mainly through member donations. Its 2007 goal is $500,000; so far, it has raised about half that amount. Members are not required to pay dues, but they are encouraged to make donations or opt for a $50 monthly contribution. Kapoor says the group is open to gifts from other sources, but declined to name other contributors.