H1-B Visas – A New Push to Increase the Cap?
By letter dated October 23, 2007, 16 Democratic members of Congress wrote to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking that Congress take immediate steps to “resolve the immediate talent crisis that is facing U.S. employers", specifically by raising the annual cap on H1-B highly skilled worker visas. As noted in other postings here, in addition to not passing comprehensive immigration reform this past summer, it appears that Congress will not be passing standalone immigration reform either. The Senate’s failure last week to pass the DREAM Act is evidence of that.
Nonetheless, at least some members of Congress appear to understand the need to increase the H1-B visa cap from the current annual cap of 65,000 (and 20,000 more for foreign students who receive advanced degrees from U.S. schools) to something much higher. Proposals include having no cap at all to the vague idea that the number be tied to the then current “needs of U.S. employers”.
Whatever the cap should be, it is clear that it needs to be higher than the current cap which was reached this year on April 1st--the very first day for filing H1-B applications. So many H1-B visa applications were received that day that a lottery system had to be implemented, a pretty ridiculous way to try to help U.S. employers stay competitive in a gobal economy.
Despite efforts such as this letter to Speaker Pelosi, it appears unlikely that Congress will be addressing this issue anytime soon. Nonetheless, the 16 members of Congress who signed onto the letter deserve credit: Ellen Tauscher (Calif.), Adam Smith (Wash.), Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), Artur Davis (Ala.), Ron Kind (Wis.), Rick Larsen (Wash.), Dennis Moore (Kan.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Jim Moran (Va.), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Susan Davis (Calif.), Lois Capps (Calif.), Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.), Christopher Carney (Pa.), Michael Arcuri (N.Y.), and David Wu (Ore.).
