Fewer applications for H-1B visas expected this year

April 2, 2009 By John Boudreau

With unemployment skyrocketing across the nation, tech and other companies this year are expected to request fewer visas for highly skilled foreign workers, according to industry experts.

But whatever number is requested, the issue of H-1B visas is certain to be especially controversial in a year when many will ask why, with so many people unemployed, American companies should hire foreign workers.

In recent years, the annual cap of 85,000 for H-1B visas - including 20,000 for those with graduate degrees in science, math and engineering - has been exceeded in just a few days. Today, as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services starts processing visa petitions for 2010, the torrent of applications may be smaller.

"The demand is still there, but the rate at which the cap is hit won't be as quick as it has been in the past," said Bob Sakaniwa, associate director of advocacy at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. But he said the number of petitions could nonetheless be large due to pent-up demand.

With millions of Americans out of work, the visa program for foreign workers has sparked renewed controversy. The federal stimulus law includes provisions making it difficult for financial companies receiving money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to hire H-1B workers.

"It's an easy political target," said Robert Hoffman, a vice president at Oracle who is also co-chair of Compete America, a coalition of tech companies including Oracle, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Google that lobbies for the right to hire foreign workers.

"The 85,000 H-1B workers represent 0.07 percent of the entire U.S. labor force," Hoffman said. "You could take all of the new applications for H-1B visas and put them in the Rose Bowl and you'd still have seats to sell."

Sen. Charles Grassley has criticized tech companies for not protecting jobs of U.S. citizens over those of foreigners as they lay off thousands of employees at a clip. The Iowa Republican and Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, have said they plan to reintroduce a bill later this year that would require companies to do everything they can to hire Americans before seeking H-1B visas.

"We hope that this cycle of anger really makes some fundamental changes," said Lee Conrad, a former IBM worker who is an organizer for the Communications Workers of America. "When we see such high unemployment rates, Congress really needs to do something about terminating the H-1B visa program."

The tight job market is also triggering demands for more visa oversight. "We strongly support urgent reform and proper monitoring of the visa process so unqualified people can't take jobs that Americans are qualified for," said Priyanka Joshi, spokeswoman for WashTech, a Seattle-based union for tech professionals. Though her group does not advocate eliminating H-1B visas, it believes foreign workers regularly get hired based on fraudulent qualifications.

In recent years, there has been some support from both parties in Congress for more H-1B visas and green cards for foreign professionals, a major goal of tech companies that has been caught up in the highly charged debate over immigration.

During the dot-com boom a decade ago, the H-1B visa cap was 195,000 a year, a reflection of the frenzied hiring of tech workers in Silicon Valley and elsewhere around the nation. That number dropped dramatically during the recession that followed.

"Even in this grim economy, there are some jobs in which we don't have enough people - for example, we still have a nursing shortage," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.,, who heads the House subcommittee on immigration.

Nonetheless, she believes the visa program is far from perfect: "There have been instances I have discovered where people have not been paid as much as they should have been; where their skill set was average, not excellent; where there were Americans available to do the same work."

Lofgren does not support piecemeal bills, such as the one planned by Grassley and Durbin, but wants overarching legislation that covers many issues, including reforming the H-1B process and making it easier for some foreign professionals to get green cards. However, many experts think it's unlikely Congress will take on major immigration reform this year.

But the issue remains high on the list of concerns of Silicon Valley tech companies. As many as two-thirds of students enrolled in computer science and engineering programs at U.S. universities are from overseas, said Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonpartisan group that conducts research on trade and immigration.

"You'd have to ignore half to two-thirds of your potential future labor pool to not hire someone who is a foreign national," he said. "If you do ignore them, your competition will hire them outside the United States."

___

H-1B EMPLOYERS

Top companies that applied for H-1B visas in 2008:

Infosys Technologies: 4,559

Wipro: 2,678

Satyam Computer Services: 1,917

Tata Consultancy Services: 1,539

Microsoft: 1,037

Accenture: 731

Cognizant Tech Solutions: 467

Cisco Systems: 422

Larsen & Toubro Infotech: 403

IBM India Private Ltd.: 381

Intel: 351

Source: National Foundation for American Policy

___

(c) 2009, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).
Visit Mercury Center, the World Wide Web site of the Mercury News, at http://www.bayarea … /mercurynews
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.


Rank not rated yet
Related Stories
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
  • How to tilt a object
    created2 hours ago
  • How to calculate total compressibility in liquid porous solid system
    created7 hours ago
  • Need help reading 3-D
    createdFeb 11, 2012
  • A way to send and receive wireless data
    createdFeb 11, 2012
  • Calling function with no input argument
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Force free body diagram problem on gym equipment
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • More from Physics Forums - General Engineering

More news stories

Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon

(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...

Technology / Internet

created 15 hours ago | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 5 | with audio podcast report

Iran blocks email, restricts net access: reports

Iran has further restricted access to the Internet and blocked popular email services for the past few days, in a move a top lawmaker said could "cost the regime dearly," media reports said on Sunday.

Technology / Internet

created 8 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 5

Love a click away in Indonesia's Twitter Republic

He was a geeky kid from Yogyakarta, she a glamorous city girl in Jakarta. In a country with one of the world's most vibrant social networking scenes they fell in love on Twitter.

Technology / Internet

created 16 hours ago | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Feb 11, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (14) | comments 52 | with audio podcast weblog

Navy to begin tests on electromagnetic railgun prototype launcher

The Office of Naval Research (ONR)'s Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program will take an important step forward in the coming weeks when the first industry railgun prototype launcher is tested at a facility ...

Technology / Engineering

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (19) | comments 95 | with audio podcast


Scientists discover molecular secrets of 2,000-year-old Chinese herbal remedy

For roughly two thousand years, Chinese herbalists have treated Malaria using a root extract, commonly known as Chang Shan, from a type of hydrangea that grows in Tibet and Nepal. More recent studies suggest that halofuginone, ...

New method to examine batteries -- MRI from the inside

There is an ever-increasing need for advanced batteries for portable electronics, such as phones, cameras, and music players, but also to power electric vehicles and to facilitate the distribution and storage of energy derived ...

A mitosis mystery solved: How chromosomes align perfectly in a dividing cell

Although the process of mitotic cell division has been studied intensely for more than 50 years, Whitehead Institute researchers have only now solved the mystery of how cells correctly align their chromosomes during symmetric ...

Lab study raises questions over nano-particle impact

Tests involving chickens have raised questions about the impact on health from engineered nano-particles, the ultra-fine grains commonly used in drugs and processed foods, scientists said on Sunday.

Starve a virus, feed a cure? Findings show how some cells protect themselves against HIV

A protein that protects some of our immune cells from the most common and virulent form of HIV works by starving the virus of the molecular building blocks that it needs to replicate, according to research published online ...

Overeating may double risk of memory loss

New research suggests that consuming between 2,100 and 6,000 calories per day may double the risk of memory loss, or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), among people age 70 and older. The study was released today and will be ...