High-tech companies and other businesses are pushing Congress to increase the number of visas available for skilled foreign workers after immigration officials announced this week that the 65,000 visa cap had been reached in a matter of hours.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said more than 150,000 H-1B petitions were received Monday, the first day companies could apply. Applications received Tuesday have not been tallied.
Officials plan to conduct a computerized lottery of the applications received on both days and notify the recipients of the results. The drawing is not expected to take place for several weeks because of the high volume of petitions.
“It’s just nuts,” said Los Angeles immigration attorney Carl Shusterman, who sent his client’s H-1B applications by FedEx on Friday. “Sixty-five thousand as a cap is just an artificial number that was agreed to by Congress years ago. It is not in sync with the labor market.”
This was by far the fastest that the visa cap had been reached, said Sharon Rummery, a USCIS spokeswoman. Last year, visas ran out in May and the previous year, in August. They are six-year visas.
Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., proposed legislation that would increase the cap on H-1B visas to 115,000 and would exempt from the cap certain individuals who have earned an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or math in the United States. Under the legislation, the cap could be increased in subsequent years to as many as 180,000.
