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Google loses H-1B visa sweepstakes

June 9, 2008 — 6:59am ET
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Apparently not even Google can always get its way, at least when it comes to hiring foreign nationals and having them stay in the U.S. Like so many others in the IT field, Google claims to be constrained by the congressionally-mandated yearly cap on H-1B visas, complaining publicly that 90 of its 300 H-1B applications were rejected in the recent government visa lottery. That's still a winning percentage, but not good enough for Google. 

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency held a lottery after receiving 163,000 applications for 85,000 visa slots. A disappointed Google spokesperson said some of the individuals who did not get visas can still work for the company in other countries, but added that "worker satisfaction is higher when employees can work in the location they prefer."

For more on Google's H-1B headaches:
- check out this Computerworld article 

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Comments

By Anonymous | Posted 2:00pm | June 9, 2008

Kudos to USCIS for not sanctioning big companies H1B visas as per their demands. It is time USCIS demand a very transparent procedure as it is become quite evident to the people that there is some kind of money making scams going on between recruiting agents and the HR departments of these companies. A recent survey shows that most H1B employees brought in from outside the U.S. were actually B grade graduates. The best option would be to employ only those graduating from U.S. educational institutions.

By Joe Sabrin | Posted 3:23pm | June 9, 2008

I have almost 40 years of IT recruiting. We are interviewing a lot of talented Green Card and US citizens with computer science degrees from top Universities that cannot get their first job out of school.

We are developing a SAAS platform for candidates and recruiters to engage each other using today's communication tools, i.e. text, chat, email, voice and person-to-person.
Working BETA will be available by Oct. 1, 2008. Marketing site by the end of June.

Regards, Joe Sabrin

eHire
212-736-9544x7500
www.ehire.com

By challeng_grad | Posted 2:52am | June 10, 2008

It hurts when you said B grade graduates. Why not let them in and see who's better? That would be a challenge. There are so many gifted "extra-ordinary" graduates outside. It is stupid if you don't let them in and ignore their contribution to your economy. By the way, H1B holders are not only measured by the academe. Most of them have gained experienced of 5-12 years in industry. Who the heck won't allow them instead of picking a fresh and inexperienced graduate with the same salary offered.

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