Now a rush for H1B Visas
By Pulkit Sharma

Every year, the American Government allocates the H-1B Visa to import highly qualified foreigners “who will be employed temporarily in a specialty occupation or as a fashion model of distinguished merit and ability.”  The bulk of these 65000 Visas were used by Indian outsourcing companies to support local clients and/or learn the computer system so that it could be supported from India. Some of these Indian companies were clearly flouting the letter and spirit of the H1B Visa.

The US Government has another 20000 H1B Visas for foreigners who have done higher specialized degrees in American universities.

While tech giants like Microsoft and Oracle support such working visas, as you can imagine, many American tech workers are not happy to lose their jobs to Indians on H1B Visas.  The US Congress has now tightened the rules to prevent misuse of the H1B Visa system. America has at least 10 anti-H1B blogs supported by many in the local tech industry.

Before the recession in USA, these visas were snapped up in a few days.  Once the recession struck, there were fewer jobs.  Under pressure from local techies to keep ‘American jobs in America’, Congress passed laws making it difficult for companies to hire H1B Visa Holders if they were receiving Government funds. There was a crackdown on visa fraud.

For the first time in many years, for many months there were not even enough applications for the H1B Visas.

But as the American economy improves, there is a mad rush to get a coveted H1B Visa. Legal site Lexuniversal has updated its lawyers

“
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated its periodic count of FY2010 H-1B cap filings, revealing that there has been a significant increase in the rate of filings during the month of October 2009. USCIS has stated that it has received a sufficient number of petitions to use all of the available 20,000 H-1B numbers that are reserved for individuals with advanced degrees from U.S. colleges or universities, which means that the “advanced degree” H-1B cap for FY2010 has been reached.

Around 6,000 cap-subject H-1B petitions were filed in October 2009. This is a significant number, especially when compared to the only 1,500 filings received by USCIS in September 2009. In total, as of October 25, 2009, approximately 52,800 H-1B petitions that count against the congressionally-mandated 65,000 limit have been received by USCIS. This leaves only around 12,000 H-1B cap numbers for FY2010.
“

Techgoss note:  In Nov, 2009, a new Bill ‘Employ America Act’ has been introduced into Congress.  If passed, this will prevent any American company laying off a large number of staff from hiring H1B workers from countries like India.