The National Foundation for American Policy issued two reports today. One report, “H-1B Visas by the Numbers: 2010 and Beyond”, shows new H-1B visa holders represented only 0.06 percent of the U.S. civilian labor force in 2009. The report also cites USCIS data that in FY 2009 less than 6 percent of new H-1B visas went to Indian technology companies and the number of new H-1B visas utilized by Indian technology firms fell by 70 percent between FY 2006 and FY 2009. In FY 2009, 27,288 different employers hired at least one individual on a new H-1B petition, according to USCIS.

In the second report, “Take a Memo: USCIS Adds Costs, Uncertainty and Questionable Legality in Redefining the Employer-Employee Relationship“, Sherry Neal and Michael Hammond point out some problems with the January 2010 Neufeld memo, including the inconsistencies with other provisions of immigration law and other federal laws. The report notes, “the memorandum should be withdrawn and changes to the H-1B laws should be left to Congress, or at the very least, any new rules should be issued pursuant to the Adminstrative Procedures Act.”

The studies can be found on the NFAP website at http://www.nfap.com/. The National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan public policy research organization based in Arlington, Virginia focusing on trade, immigration and related issues. The Advisory Board members include Columbia University economist Jagdish Bhagwati, Ohio University economist Richard Vedder and other prominent individuals. Over the past 24 months, NFAP’s research has been written about in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other major media outlets.