U.S. Exhausts Visa Quota for Skilled Workers

It took less than half the fiscal year to exhaust the annual allotment of visas for skilled foreign professionals, the government said Friday. The announcement is likely to boost the prospects for congressional action temporarily raising the ceiling on the visa program.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, given authority by Congress to dole out 115,000 H-1B visas for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, said it already has handed out 74,300 visas and has more than 45,000 petitions pending. Last year, the cap was hit in mid-June.

The agency will stop accepting visa petitions Tuesday.

The announcement was noticed on Capitol Hill, where several measures have been introduced that would expand the cap for the visas, which are popular with high-tech employers who contend there isn’t enough domestic talent to meet their surging industry’s needs.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan “has made clear that the continued strong job market is placing strains on our economy, and these H-1B numbers underscore that fact,” Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) said Friday. Dreier is sponsoring a bill that would raise the annual cap to 200,000 visas for three years “so that enough skilled workers are available.”

An industry trade group, the Computing Technology Industry Assn., claims nearly 269,000 high-tech jobs are unfilled. The problem costs U.S. businesses $4.5 billion a year in lost productivity, according to the association.

Organized labor contends the industry is looking overseas to hold down wages and procure young talent.