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How to dodge the H-1B visa scramble

March 31, 2008 — 7:59am ET
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While the fight continues over H-1B visas, some companies have been tapping into another kind of visa to get approval for foreign IT workers in the United States. They're called L-1 visas and they are non-immigrant visas that allow companies operating in both the United States and overseas to transfer certain classes of employees into the United States for up to seven years. The L-1A visa is a bit restrictive, however. It is for managers and executives, or for employees with specialized knowledge that cannot be found in the U.S.

"One regulation is that you'd have to have worked for the company outside the U.S. for at least a year - this will not help people right out of school," Robert Meltzer, an immigration attorney and CEO of VISANOW, an online immigration processing company, told eWeek. It's going to be an interesting week in the race for visas. On Tuesday, April 1, the application process will open for this year's 85,000 H-1B visas. If the past predicts the future, there will be such a flood of applications that it will close out by the end of the day. And the debate continues to rage in Congress, on the presidential campaign trail and at tech companies in need of qualified workers.

For more on the race for worker visas:
- Check out this eWeek article

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Comments (2) | Post a comment

Comments

By Anne B. | Posted 4:52pm | March 31, 2008

How to dodge the H-1B visa scramble? Hire some of those Americans whose resumes do not offer a 100% skills match with the absurd job requirements/descriptions.

By Anonymous | Posted 11:43pm | November 19, 2008

I am writing you to urge suspension of Foreign Worker (H1B) program for four years. Every year, 80K foreign workers are given American jobs
based on the notion that Americans are not available to take these jobs.

With the economy in the tailspin, budget deficit at all-time high, stock market in free-fall and federal government with no money to spend,
this is no longer true. With the un-employment reaching highest in modern history, we need to get our house in order before we go out of
this country to look for workers.

All these years we have been told that markets will self-regulate themselves; things will find their own equilibrium. But you know this
not true. So the notion that companies somehow will start to hire American workers before they hire foreign worker is not true. There are
enough loop holes and lawyers to work around the law.

Companies like WIPRO and Infosys are well entrench in the corporate America. Any new work is automatically routed towards them for effort
and cost estimates before thought of any new hire is realized. With the significant down turn in the economy this practice will accelerate and
will result in significant decrease in new hires.

The best way to deal with this problem is to suspend this law for next four years.

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