Rush for H1B US visas expected despite downturn
April 02 2009 by Ajay Hasija
US companies have five days to submit their petitions to Citizenship and Immigration Services to enable them to employ skilled workers, or H1-B visa holders in the 2010 financial year, which starts in October.
Although extra restrictions have been applied to firms that have received government bailouts, the petition limits are expected to be reached extremely quickly again, partly due to a backlog from last year.
Firms such as Microsoft and Cisco Systems have, as usual, rushed to ensure their petitions for skilled scientists and technology engineers to work in the USA were waiting at immigration offices on Wednesday morning.
US technology firms benefit greatly from foreign skilled people who move to the US either permanently or temporarily. Many of the firms demanding the largest number of H-1B workers are Indian firms with offices in the US.
Stuart Anderson, from the National Foundation for American Policy says that more than half the students graduating in advanced science and engineering degrees at US universities are foreign. Anderson adds that the H1-B visas are “the only practical way for employers to hire them.”
Some 65,000 people are expected be granted skilled worker visas for the 2010 financial year.
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