H-1B VISA DEMAND AFFECTED BY RECESSION

By D.E.Levine

For years there have been outspoken complaints about the number of H-1B visas requested and issued so that foreign workers can come to and work in the United States.

Demand for those visas generally does fluctuate with the economy and running true to form, this year, when the economic recession is going full force, requests for H-1B visas has dropped.

In April 2008 the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had 85,000 available visas and in 5 days (beginning April 1, 2008) received 163,000 applications. USCIS resorted to a lottery system to award the visas.

On April 1, 2009 USCIS began accepting application for 2010 visas. As of April 9, 2009 only 62,000 visa petitions had been submitted.

The applications consisted of 42,000 for the regular 65,000 visas that can be issued. Foreigners with advanced degrees from U.S. universities have 20,000 visa applications set aside for them and has received a sufficient number of applications for those.

USCIS is continuing to accept applications and expect to exhaust the supply of available visas although the recession and cutbacks at IT vendors have reduced demand.

One of the extenuating circumstances that caused the Bush administration to extend the period during which students could work on their student visas was the restriction that foreign students can't apply for H-1B visas until they graduate and graduations are generally in May.

The government has announced that since there is a backlog of foreign nationalists who are in the U.S. already but couldn't get visas a year ago, many of the visas are expected to be issued to them.

Overall though, it's agreed that the H-1B visa program tracks with the broader demand for workers based on the economy.

Additionally, controvery over the visas still remains as groups such as IEEE-USA (formerly the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) site a significant jump in unemployment rates among U.S. native workers.

Government officials have been talking about proposing H-1B reforms that would require companies to make efforts to hire U.S. workers before bringing in H-1B workers. Controversy remains as officials are undecided whether to include such reforms in overall immigration reforms.