H-1B Visa Cap Reached within Days of Being Open, But No Quick Answers from Congress
In our economy, seen as the linchpin by many for the globalization that has become integral to free-market capitalism in the 21st century, the demand for skilled workers has never been higher. Foreign professionals gaining entry to the United States for work under this category use an H-1B visa, officially referred to as the visa for "specialty occupations."
This year, the demand has so far exceeded expectations that immigration officials are calling for a halt of applications within less than a week of the open date for submitting applications for next year. H-1B visas for 2009 are eligible to begin in October of 2008, with the application date four months earlier, on April 1, 2008.
H-1B visas are capped at 65,000 visas per year, with an additional 20,000 granted to foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities with masters or doctorate degrees. Though previously the number was around double the current number and there has been legislation introduced to raise that number once again, currently there are no exceptions in this regard.
And that's bad news for U.S. employers looking to bring in workers for skilled positions, primarily in the high-tech industry but also including academia and other higher-education field positions. With the number of applications piling up so quickly, the USCIS has decided to hold a lottery to determine whom to grant the remaining visas.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce indicated that this means that any employer who wishes to hire a foreign skilled worker must wait 18 months at the very least for the 2010 year allotment.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, legislators have offered bills that would increase the cap, as mentioned above. Here is a rundown of what their proposed caps would be:
- The Strengthening United States Technology and Innovation Now Act (SUSTAIN Act) (HR 5642): raise caps in 2008 and 2009 to 195,000 per year
- The Innovation Employment Act (HR 5630): raise caps in 2008 to 130,000 with proposals of 180,000 caps in the future
- New American Innovators Act (HR 5634): make nonimmigrant residents exempt from the H-1B quota if they have a Ph.D.
However, none of these bills has any real potential of making it through Congress, primarily because many lawmakers are attaching more comprehensive immigration reform measures to them and opponents of the reform measures would refuse to debate or vote on them.
Thus, without comprehensive immigration reform coming anytime soon, it looks as if H-1B visas will continue to be eaten up quickly with no end sight, and there will be no relief for skilled workers looking to enter the United States or U.S. employers looking to bring in such workers to their companies.