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Helping employers fill STEM openings
Attorney Bennett Savitz owns Savitz Law Offices, P.C. in Boston, MA, specializing in immigration law and nationality law for corporations.
Savitz began his career in immigration law in 1994, and an opportunity to start his practice presented itself several years later. “I was in a partnership with somebody who left to work for a big firm, and so when he left, it created this opportunity for me to try out being solo. I didn’t plan on it, but I realized I enjoyed it once that happened. I was fortunate enough to have previously worked in different environments. I had worked for a big firm. I had worked for a small law office, and I had worked in a partnership. So, I had done enough different things to know what those were.” Savitz opened Savitz Law Offices in 2000 and hasn’t looked back.
Savitz Law Offices has grown over the years. “I have an of-counsel attorney, two paralegals and law student interns.” Savitz also teaches a business immigration law class at New England Law in Boston. “New England Law has an immigration law concentration in clinic. So I get a law student intern every semester and during the summer.”
Savitz explained his legal firm’s services. “We represent employers looking to hire foreign nationals to work in the United States. Then when those employers, our clients, find a foreign national who they want to get permission to employ in the U.S., we do the legal work for them to get that permission.” Savitz noted that a new employment authorization is temporary at first. Savitz will assist with the green card process if the employer continues employing the foreign national. “I would say that’s 95 percent of what we do. The other five percent consists of company clients, foreign employers with a U.S. worker, or a foreign national worker who marries a U.S. citizen. So, we do the green card for that case as well. And then people who’ve had a green card for three or five years, depending on a couple of circumstances, are eligible to become U.S. citizens. And so, we would file to help them become a U.S. citizen as well.”
When asked about trends in hiring foreign nationals, Savitz explained that demand for his firm’s services increases when the unemployment rate is low. Desperate employers seek qualified candidates, even if it requires navigating the immigration process. Savitz shed light on some misconceptions surrounding immigration and U.S. companies hiring foreign nationals.
“People assume that these foreign nationals are displacing U.S. workers. It’s actually the opposite for the most part. These are people filling jobs that U.S. employers can’t find workers for, particularly in the STEM field—science, technology, engineering and math. There’s a shortage of U.S. workers. We are not graduating people from U.S. schools with those degrees and haven’t for a long time. One statistic I like to let people know that helps explain this is If you look at all the engineering graduate programs in the United States, three-quarters of those students are international students. So, the students graduating from U.S. universities with those degrees are foreign nationals. The jobs that are the most plentiful in the U.S. are those STEM jobs. U.S. employers would happily hire qualified U.S. workers if they could find them because it’s much quicker, easier and cheaper. They wouldn’t need me, but they can’t. So that’s why this is necessary.” Savitz also noted that employers must demonstrate that no qualified U.S. workers are available for a position before obtaining a green card for a foreign national.
When asked what he enjoys about his job, Savitz said he likes helping the U.S. economy. If employers can’t find qualified candidates, it can slow the company’s growth and affect the economy. “I like the fact that I’m contributing to a problem within the U.S. economy, and this is a solution that we should be seeking. And it also means that these places can’t take on more work, and it slows the whole economic process down. So that’s number one. The second thing I like, of course, is just running my own business.”
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