2007 H-1B visa limit already reached

Each year, the allotted number of H1B visas seems to be snapped up faster and faster. This year is no exception, as the fiscal year 2007 quota of 65,000 has been reached, four months before the October 1 start of FY 2007. H-1B is a visa classification that allows skilled technology professionals, fashion models of distinguished merit and ability, and scientists to live and work in the US.

Understandably, the H-1B visa classification is a contentious issue. Legislation to raise the visa cap to 115,000 for 2007 along with annual increases of up to 20 percent has passed in the US Senate, but has been ignored by the House of Representatives. Previous attempts to tweak the program to exempt some foreign graduate students from counting against the cap have failed.

Technology companies have called for an increase on the cap, with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates testifying before Congress last year that the limit hindered the company's ability to hire an adequate number of skilled workers. Additionally, as hitting the limit this early indicates, there is a high demand for the visas from foreign tech workers who want to live and work in the US.

At the same time, the technology industry's abuse of the program has led to heavy criticism. Much of the criticism stems from the view that most of the jobs the tech industry gives to H-1B visa holders are ones that could have gone to American workers instead. The IEEE-USA, a US organizational unit of the IEEE, has called for the cap to remain at or under current levels, with income from the program used to train US workers that have lost their jobs.

Agency: U.S. Hits Cap on High-Tech Visas

Associated Press

Thu Jun 1

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