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From the
AmericaS
85
J
uly
/A
ugust
2007
Immigration
Quota on US visas for high-tech guest workers
is filled in a day
The federal agency Citizenship and Immigration Services began
accepting petitions for skilled-worker visas for the fiscal year starting
October 1, and by mid-afternoon of April 2 had received about
150,000 applications.
Because Congress has mandated a limit on the coveted H-1B visas
to 65,000 annually, the agency halted the application process and
said it would employ randomized computer selection to fill the quota
from among the applications in hand. The rejects would be returned
and filing fees refunded.
There are a few ways around the cap on the coveted visas
for foreign workers with high-technology skills or in specialty
occupations. It is not imposed on petitions for extensions by
current H-1B holders, and an additional 20,000 visas are open to
applicants who hold advanced degrees from American academic
institutions.
But many American employers of scientists, engineers, computer
programmers, and other workers with analytical or technical
expertise consider the exclusions derisory and the cap itself a
harmful anachronism. Bill Gates, whose Microsoft Corp alone
has an estimated 15,000 employees in the US holding work visas
or permanent-resident green cards, is a very vocal advocate for
reform of the visa system in favour of highly educated foreign
professionals.
Although they are a hard sell to lawmakers answerable to
constituents worried about the loss of American jobs, Mr Gates’s
views may be gaining traction.
Compete America, the Washington-based ‘coalition for a competitive
workforce’, includes among its 200 members Microsoft, the National
Association of Manufacturers, and the US Chamber of Commerce.
It came out fighting on April 2, date of the ‘unprecedented
announcement’ that the 2008 allotment of H-1B visas was met on
the very first day applications were accepted.
Robert E Hoffman, a vice president of the business software
company Oracle and co-chairman of Compete America, said
in a statement,
“Our broken visa policies for highly educated
foreign professionals are not only counterproductive – they are
anticompetitive and detrimental to America’s long-term economic
competitiveness.”
Dorothy Fabian
, Features Editor (USA)