Visa Demand Jumps
Employers Set to Quickly Reach Cap on Skilled Foreign Workers
For the first time since the financial crisis, U.S. employers are expected within days to reach a limit on the yearly allotment of applications for coveted skilled-worker visas, a sign of the strengthening economy that means some employers will rely on a lottery to fill key positions.
U.S. companies each year can sponsor a total of 65,000 foreigners with at least a bachelor's degree for a so-called H-1B visa, many of which go to programmers and other specialized workers. The program allocates an additional 20,000 visas each year to foreign nationals with advanced degrees from U.S. universities.
Government and company officials predict employers by Friday will exhaust the quota for this year's application season, which opened Monday for jobs starting in October or later. If that happens, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that runs the program, will randomly select applications that will then be considered for visas if any applications received before the cap are rejected.
The last time employers reached the congressionally mandated limit in less than a week was 2008. In subsequent years, the weak economy left thousands of H-1B spots unfilled until later in the season. Demand for the program has increased in the past two years as companies accelerated hiring overall.
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