Visa Bottlenecks Are Creating Headaches for Employers, Workers

Immigration attorney Leon Fresco was mentioned in a Bloomberg Law article about the slow process for obtaining and renewing worker visas in the United States. The extreme wait times at embassies and consular offices force workers to face a tough choice if their visa has expired, either put off returning home or potentially finding themselves stuck in their home country for months before they can travel back to the U.S. The wait times are also an inconvenience for companies whose workers can't get back to the U.S. after traveling abroad, and obstructs plans for companies that need to bring hires to the country. Mr. Fresco said the best way to fix this issue is to allow visa holders with no criminal convictions or other issues to renew their visas in the country, as opposed to the current system in which expired visas can only be renewed at consular offices outside of the U.S. He stated that making this decision would solve most of the backlog problems at embassies and consulates.

"Institutional inertia has been the main problem," he said. "They actually need to put their money where their mouth is and move forward on it."

LEER: Visa Bottlenecks Are Creating Headaches for Employers, Workers