H-1B Visa Information
An H-1B visa is a non-immigrant, temporary visa that allows
As in past years, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received a large number of applications days after the April 1 filing date opening. USCIS reported an all-time high number of applications: 163,000, including 31,200 for the advanced-degree exempted spots. USCIS stopped accepting applications on April 7 and will have a lottery to fill the congressionally mandated cap of 85,000 spots.
For more information, go to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services H-1B Visa Site>>
Action in Congress
On April 10, 2008, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), along with Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Judd Gregg (R-NH), and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), introduced the “Global Competitiveness Act of 2008” (S. 2839), which would temporarily increase the number of H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000 over the next 3 years. The Act would also demand that visa holders are only allowed to work in areas with demonstrated shortages of American workers, thereby encouraging employers to higher Americans first. A third provision of the Act would have a provision to recapture any unused visas and put them pack into the pool. For more information, click here>>
Also in April 2008, the House Republican Study Committee sent an open letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, urging them to decouple the discussion of H-1B visas with illegal immigration and introduce a bill in the next few months that will increase the flow of highly skilled, legal immigrants. Specifically, the RSC calls for the Securing Knowledge, Innovation, and Leadership Act of 2007 to be pushed through. This Act would increase the number of H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000 and also allow for a 20% increase in the cap each year, provided the quota was met during the year previous. The Act would also exempt from the cap any individuals with a master’s or higher degree from a
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) has introduced a series of bills to the House regarding foreign workers. The first, H.R. 5882, introduced on April 23, 2008 and co-sponsored by Rep. Thomas Davis (R-VA) and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), to address the green cards allocated annually by Congress that are not filled due to a variety of bureaucratic delays. The bill would “recapture” the immigrant visas (green cards) and roll them over to the next fiscal year. The second bill by Rep. Lofgren, H.R. 5921, was introduced on April 29, 2008 with Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). Currently, the
Testimonial from D2Hawkeye CEO Chris Kryder
Our business - transforming healthcare data into meaningful information and knowledge - depends upon skilled engineering talent. These people are very hard to find in the United States.
As a consequence we have built a large off-shore operation; we now employ 250 engineers there. This South Asian team has been critically important in building our company - and create jobs - in the U.S.
We've worked hard to succeed in a very challenging, restrictive and costly immigration environment. D2 has managed to secure only a handful of H1B visas. But I'm certain that we would have been able to build faster, if we'd had greater access to these resources; I estimate that each trained engineer (that we finally get to the U.S.) generates 3-4 supporting employees. More importantly, these critical data and software engineering skills bring enormous value to our clients, to whom we bring software and services designed to improve healthcare quality and cost management.
Short of securing our national defense, what could be more important?.....
(How about K-12 education which emphasizes science and math instead of feel-good? I've seen classrooms in rural Nepal which put (highly-touted schools of) Newton, MA, where I live, to shame. I once brought a Nepali math textbook back and showed it to my then 17 year old son - who was a quite capable high school student. He looked at it briefly and said, ‘Yeah, I can do that stuff.’ To which I replied, ‘That's not reassuring, because you are looking at a seventh grade textbook’).
Characteristics of H-1B visa holders
- India – 44.4%
- China – 9.2%
- Canada – 4.4%
- Philippines – 3.7%
- Korea – 3.0%
- Computer – 43%
- Architecture and Engineering – 12.1%
- Education – 11.0%
- Administrative Specializations – 9.8%
- Medicine and Health – 6.6%
