Rush for H-1B visas under way

Published on ZDNet News: April 2, 2007, 1:38 PM PT

The 2007 rush for H-1B guest worker visas has begun.

April 1 marked the start date for technology companies to seek permission from the U.S. government to hire temporary foreign employees under the visa program, which permits up to 65,000 H-1Bs to be issued this year. Exceptions, however, allow that number to be exceeded.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and other luminaries in the hardware and software business for years have pressed Congress to raise the limit, but politicians went home last December without doing anything.

"Without an increase in the number of H-1B visa and green cards issued each year, our nation loses the opportunity to benefit from the contributions of highly educated and skilled workers from around the world," Jack Krumholz, Microsoft's top lobbyist, said at the time. "American businesses and society in general will be worse off due to Congress' lack of action on this issue."

The H-1B program allows foreigners with at least a bachelor's degree in their area of specialty to be employed in the United States for up to six years. They're currently capped at 65,000 visas per year, with an additional 20,000 visas set aside for foreigners with advanced degrees, after peaking at 195,000 between 2001 and 2003.

In April 2005, and again last month, Gates said that any H-1B limits should be completely eliminated. Groups like the Information Technology Industry Council, whose member companies include Apple, Dell, Cisco Systems, IBM, Intel and Microsoft, have called for substantially higher limits.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6172629.html

If we can't ship your job overseas to someone who'll do it cheaper, we'll import someone to do it cheaper. Meanwhile, you can get job retraining to work for Mall-Wart.

What the fuck is wrong with this country?

Money grubbing war mongers and their reality challenged supporters.

H-1B Visa Cap Reached

If you haven't yet filed your petitions to hire foreign tech workers next year, you may as well forget about it.

April 3, 2007 04:00 PM

By the end of today, if you haven't filed your H-1B petitions to hire foreign tech workers starting in October, forget about it. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will stop accepting the applications on Wednesday.

On Monday, USCIS received 150,000 petitions for the 65,000 H-1B visas that will be issued for fiscal year 2008, starting Oct. 1.

USCIS began accepting the petitions April 2 -- and although the 150,000 petitions received Monday (not to mention the tens-of-thousands still being counted today) are more than enough to fill the annual allotment, USCIS is mandated to accept the petitions for two days, says a USCIS spokeswoman.

USCIS will begin rejecting petitions for H-1B Wednesday, she says.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198702246