November 28, 2007

The cap placed on H-1B visas offered by the United States government is frustrating to both applicants and the companies wanting to hire foreign talent, and the issue has been batted around congress over the last several months.

The H-1B is a temporary work visa given to foreigners with skills in specialized industries that allows them to live and work in the U.S. The number of visas available in any fiscal year is 65,000, the same number as back in 1990. An additional 20,000 visas are reserved for foreign workers with advanced degrees from U.S. universities.

Even more alarming to our technology companies was the recent amendment to a bill approved by the Senate in October but later died before passing through Congress. The proposal, crafted by US Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), was to raise the fee paid by companies from $1500 to $5000.

Grassley, one of the most vocal critics of the H-1B visa program, has said, "I'm willing to consider an increase in H-1B visa supply, but only if reforms are included"

Grassley’s position, shared by many others in America, is that the H-1B was meant to be a temporary visa that allows our companies to hire foreign talent while America invests to raise the skill level of our own work force, but has now evolved into a way for companies to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor.

The amendment Grassley tacked onto the senate bill proposed to use the $3500 fee to fund scholarships for Americans pursuing college degrees in fields where skilled foreign labor is now targeted: medicine and nursing, engineering, computer science; and mathematics. The goal was to help keep American workers competitive, while H-1B visas keep American businesses competitive in the global marketplace.

High tech companies use most of the visas and are the biggest supporters of a cap increase. In April, on the first day when the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services accepted H-1B applications for the fiscal year that began in October, 150,000 applications were submitted.

Microsoft recently opened up operations across the border from their Redmond, WA office in Vancouver, British Columbia in order to employ foreign workers they could not hire in Washington State due to the strict American numbers. Other companies including Google employ workers in India and other countries overseas because they cannot employ the foreigners here in America.

The other side to the Grassley argument is that we need a cap increase to stay competitive in the global marketplace or foreign talent will go instead to companies based in Europe and elsewhere.

The reality is harsh as well for many foreign college seniors who receive world class educations in our universities, but must leave after graduation because they cannot get visas to work in America. These foreign students contribute billions to our economy through tuition and consumerism. Our professors educate them for four years, and we then force them to go put this knowledge to use at companies outside of the US.

The immigration reform bill that died in the Senate this past summer would have increased the current yearly limit to an all inclusive total of 115,000 H-1B visas. Immigration reform in all shapes will remain a dynamic debate as the elections near. Many are hopeful we can strike a balance between remaining globally competitive and providing good paying jobs for Americans.