Thousands Of H-1B Visas Still Up For GrabsThousands Of H-1B Visas Still Up For Grabs

Want an H-1B visa to work temporarily in the U.S. starting this fall? You still have a pretty good shot if an employer is willing to file a petition for you. The U.S. still has about 20,000 visas available for fiscal 2010.

It's been nearly four months since the U.S. began accepting from employers H-1B visa petitions for IT and other professionals for temporary jobs starting in fiscal 2010, which begins Oct. 1. The weak economy continues to dampen demand of the visa most popular among employers seeking IT workers.

Since the U.S. began accepting fiscal 2010 visa petitions on April 1, the U.S. has hit about two-thirds of the annual cap on general H-1B visas. At last count, as of July 10, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had received 44,900 H-1B visa petitions toward the congressionally mandated annual cap of 65,000.

However, the demand by employers for more highly educated H-1B visa workers is apparently stronger. By the end of April, the U.S. had reached the cap of 20,000 H-1B visa exemptions for foreign workers with advanced degrees -- including masters and PhDs -- from U.S. schools.

But because the general category H-1B visa cap of 65,000 hasn't been hit yet, USCIS will continue to accept advanced degree as well as general H-1B petitions until the agency reaches the statutory limit on all H-1Bs.

The fact that it is mid-summer and the H-1B visa cap hasn't been reach yet is startling when contrasting this year's demand to the last couple of years, when USCIS received enough petitions to hit the combined 85,000 limit within days of accepting the applications in April.

But with the economy still sputtering, few expected demand for H-1B visas to be as robust this year as in the past. "This isn't a surprise," said Robert Hoffman, VP of government affairs at Oracle and co-chair of Compete America, a coalition of technology companies and other employers that had been for years lobbying Congress to raise the H-1B visa cap.

"This is what we've been saying all along, the cap should be driven by demand," he says. "If the economy is strong, demand for skilled workers grows, and when the economy is tough, demand for H-1B goes down," he said.

Compete America members such as Oracle are in favor of a "market-based cap" that allows the U.S. to increase the number of H-1B issued annually if the cap is reached before the fiscal year begins, or early in the fiscal year.

"Even with 20,000 visas still available, no one has been hired yet," Hoffman says, pointing out that the visas don't become effective till Oct. 1. "If the economy picks up, can those 20,000 visas last 'til the next 14 months?" during which time employers could have stronger demand for highly skilled workers, he asked.

If the cap for fiscal 2010 gets reached, the U.S. won't accept any additional petitions for H-1B visas until April 1, 2010 for fiscal 2011 starting Oct. 1, 2010.

In the meantime, Hoffman said comprehensive immigration reform legislation -- including proposals related to H-1B visas -- will likely soon resurface for debate in Congress, probably first in the Senate before the fall. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), a member of the Senate subcommittee on immigration, said recently he expects to have a draft bill for comprehensive immigration reform ready by Labor Day.

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