Wednesday, March 22 - H-1B visas run out again
By Lisa M. Bowman, ZDNet NewsWith six months to go in the fiscal year, tech firms run out of foreign-worker visas for the third year running.
It's happened again.
For the third year in a row, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has stopped accepting applications for H1-B visas well before the end of the year, leaving companies -- including those in the high-tech field -- scrambling to fill empty jobs in a tight job market without tapping into the pool of foreign workers and non-citizen students graduating from U.S. universities.
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In 1998, Congress increased the cap from 65,000 to 115,000, a quota reached last year by June.
Companies say they're left with only a few options, including hiring under-qualified workers, putting projects on hold, placing employees in foreign offices, or asking university graduates whether they'll wait another six months until more visas become available when the new fiscal year starts in October.
None, they say, are good alternatives -- an argument they've made repeatedly before lawmakers in recent years in an attempt to raise the H-1B visa cap.
"Overall, this is not a situation we can face every spring," said Mary Dee Beall, government affairs manger at Hewlett-Packard Co.
Beall said foreign citizens accounted for only 150 to 200 of the company's 8,000 new hires in the past year. But they're desirable job candidates because they're often graduates of U.S. universities, where they've been experimenting with the latest technology, she said. "It's hard telling recent college graduates, 'Can you just wait around six months?' "
Thom Stohler, of American Electronics Association, a high-tech trade group, said companies have learned to get their visa applications in early.
"If you don't get your visas in by New Year's, you won't get processed," he said, pointing out that the unemployment rate for engineers is only 1.6 percent.
However, Stohler said Washington lawmakers finally understand the issue, three years after the industry began aggressively pressing to raise the cap. "Members of all parties and political persuasions now get the H-1B visa problem," he said.
Currently, two industry-backed bills moving through Congress address the shortage. On the House side, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., has proposed a bill that would raise the cap to 200,000, setting aside about 60,000 of those for people who hold a master's degrees and Ph.D.s. On the Senate side, Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., have introduced a bill, enthusiastically endorsed by such industry groups as the American Electronics Association, that would raise the cap to 195,000 and provide exclusions for foreign nationals graduating with master's or Ph.D.s.
Dems, GOP face obstacles
However, the number that actually gets approved will likely be much lower than the proposed figure, in part because of criticism from labor and other groups that companies aren't trying hard enough to hire U.S. workers and train them.
All sides agree the problem needs more long-term solutions than just raising caps, solutions such as improving math and science curricula in the younger grades and training older workers in new technology.
Both parties face their own internal opposition to easing H-1B restrictions. The Democrats must strike a balance between labor and high-tech groups, while the Republicans have to negotiate with party hard-liners opposed to immigration in any form.
Though the passage of many bills slows during an election year as lawmakers concentrate on upcoming elections, the enactment of immigration-related bills often coincides with election years -- a trend tech companies are hoping will help them this time around.
