By: Allen E. Kaye
THE ISSUE: The numerical
cap limiting the H-1B visa program for FY2009 has again
been reached on the first day, April 1, 2008 that they were
available. This marks the 5th
consecutive year that this arbitrary numerical limit, set
more than a decade ago, has been
triggered prior to the end of the fiscal year. Congress has
allowed this to occur despite
overwhelming evidence of the number of high-tech jobs that
need to be filled in the U.S.,
and the shortage of U.S. workers available to fill them. Yet,
as President Bush and many
others have stated, a solution to this problem is clear and
readily available: bring more highly educated foreign professionals
into this country, by way of the H-1B visa. Simply put, without
more access to H-1Bs, our businesses suffer, and the U.S.
stands to rapidly lose not only the competitive economic edge
generations of Americans have worked so hard to achieve, but
also its preeminence in a variety of scientific and technical
fields—areas vital to our prosperity and national security.
The H-1B visa is a vital tool necessary to keep the U.S. economy
competitive in the world market and to keep jobs in America.
Far from harming U.S. workers and the U.S. economy, highly
educated foreign professionals benefit our country by allowing
U.S. employers to develop new products, undertake groundbreaking
research, implement new projects, expand operations, create
additional new jobs, and compete in the global marketplace.
HOW THE H-1B VISA PROGRAM WORKS: Through
the H-1B program, U.S.
employers are able to hire, on a temporary basis, highly
educated foreign professionals for “specialty occupations”--
jobs that require at least a bachelor’s degree or
the equivalent in the field of specialty. Examples include
doctors, engineers, teachers and researchers in a wide variety
of fields, accountants, medical personnel, and computer
scientists. Besides using these foreign professionals to
obtain unique skills and knowledge in short supply in this
country, U.S. businesses use the program to alleviate temporary
shortages of U.S. professionals in specific occupations,
and to acquire special expertise in overseas economic trends
and issues, thereby allowing U.S. businesses to compete
in global markets. U.S. employers also turn to H-1B professionals
when they recruit post-graduates from U.S. universities.
Foreign students represent half of all U.S. graduate enrollments
in engineering, math, and computer science. There still
are not enough U.S. students graduating with advanced degrees
in these fields to fill highly specialized positions, and,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the demand
for such graduates will increase substantially in the next
ten years. It is therefore imperative that U.S. businesses
have access to foreignprofessionals who have graduated from
U.S. master’s and Ph.D. programs.
THE H-1B PROGRAM AND U.S. WORKERS: The
H-1B program has built-in
safeguards to help prevent highly educated foreign professionals
from undercutting the
wages offered to U.S. workers. Employers must offer the
foreign professional a wage that is the higher of either
the typical wage in the region for that type of work (“prevailing
wage”), or what the employer actually pays existing
employees with similar experience and duties. A U.S. employer
using this program must also guarantee that:
CURRENT LEGISLATION: The main piece of legislation reforming
the H-1B programin a manner that will help the U.S. economy
is the SKIL Bill (HR 1930/S 1083). This measure would:
• raise the H-1B cap to 115,000 and provides for a
market-based escalator if the cap is
reached during the previous fiscal year
• provide an exemption for professionals who have
earned a U.S. master’s or higher
degree AND those who have been awarded a medical specialty
certification based on
post-doctoral U.S. training and experience
• modify the existing advanced degree cap of 20,000
to apply to those with a master’s
or higher degree from an institution of higher education
in a foreign country.
There is also the STRIVE Act of 2007 (H.R. 1645), the most
complete reform of our
current immigration system. The STRIVE Act has similar provisions
related to the H-1B
program as contained in the SKIL bill. Recently, two new
bills have been introduced to help alleviate the shortage
of H-1B visas that are available. Rep. Giffords (D-AZ) introduced
H.R. 5630 which would increase the cap to 130,000 and includes
a market escalator if the new cap is reached during the
prior fiscal year. H.R. 5630 also includes added labor protections
for U.S. workers. Rep. Smith (RTX) introduced H.R. 5642
which would increase the numerical limitation to 195,000
for fiscal years 2008 and 2009.
