An H1-B Visa Solution that Americans (and Our Economy) Should Not Want to Hear
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has testified before Congress on many occasions, criticizing the 65,000 cap on the number of H1-B visas that are issued annually to highly skilled foreign workers so they can come to the U.S. to work. Congress continues to refuse to raise the cap despite similar pleas from other high-tech employers and so Microsoft has come up with a solution – A Canadian solution.
As reported in this week’s edition of Business Week, Microsoft had opened a plant in Richmond, British Columbia, just 130 miles away from its Redmond, Washington headquarters. The Richmond office is staffed with 126 Microsoft engineers from 26 different companies, many who could not obtain H1-B visas to work in the U.S. because of the cap.
From British Columbia, the workers can collaborate with their fellow Microsoft workers in the U.S. (in the same time zone of course) and, whenever necessary, drive over the Peace Arch border to meet face-to-face.
Canada makes it very easy by not imposing any limits of visas for skilled workers.
This is hardly a solution that makes sense for the U.S. and its struggling economy but no one can blame Microsoft for doing what it needs to do. The better and longer term solution would be for Congress to eliminate the H1-B cap altogether.
