Government to Add 20,000 H-1B Visas

Computerworld - Federal officials will finally open the doors to an additional 20,000 foreign workers under the H-1B visa program beginning Thursday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency announced last week.
The start of the application process for the new visas comes after a two-month delay and some controversy over the eligibility requirements for applicants. The USCIS, which sets immigration policies and rules on visa and naturalization petitions, said the visas will be granted only to foreigners who have at least a master's-level degree from a U.S. academic institution.
That reverses the immigration service's initial position on who would be eligible. The agency had said in March that it was considering opening the extra H-1B slots to any qualified foreign national -- not just those holding advanced degrees from U.S. universities.
But the agency's earlier stance was contrary to the intent of the eligibility language that Congress inserted last fall in the legislation that created the 20,000 additional visas, according to Sandra Boyd, who heads Compete America, a Washington-based lobbying group that represents more than 200 corporations and universities. The group backs the H-1B program as a means of ensuring that U.S. businesses can hire skilled professionals from other countries.
Interpreting Language
Boyd, who is also vice president of human resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, said the USCIS made the "right interpretation" of the H-1B Visa Reform Act in the regulations that will be published in the Federal Register this week.
She added that the agency's apparent indecision over how to handle the visa allocation process created uncertainties for employers as well as prospective visa holders.
"There was a lot of confusion about whether people would be offered jobs," Boyd said. "It made it impossible to plan, and it all seemed pretty unnecessary."
Christopher Bentley, a spokesman for the USCIS, said that as the agency continued its review of the new law, "we came to the realization that this was not the intent of Congress" to allow workers without an advanced degree to get the added visas.
Congress approved the additional visas after IT vendors and other H-1B supporters complained that the 65,000-visa cap in place for the government's current fiscal year was too low to meet demand. All of the visas available under the cap were taken by last Oct. 1, the first day of fiscal 2005. The USCIS said last week that the extra visas will also be available in future fiscal years and will be exempt from the regular cap.

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