Companies flood U.S. government with visa requests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. companies flooded the government with visa applications for highly skilled foreign workers on Tuesday in what has become an annual lottery for just 65,000 visas.

The government did not release any figures, but experts said they expected about 200,000 applications, more than three times the number available, on the first day the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting the petitions for the fiscal year starting October 1.

The U.S. government was overwhelmed last year with about 120,000 applications on the first day that applications were accepted for H-1B visas, leaving many candidates out of luck.

The competition is for H-1B visas, which allow U.S. companies to employ foreign guest workers in highly skilled jobs for three years. The visas can be extended for an additional three years.

"The people we've offered jobs to are really subject to the whims of a lottery," said Jack Krumholtz, managing director of federal government affairs for Microsoft Corp.

The USCIS closed the application window after two days and pooled the petitions, granting the visas by a computerized lottery system.

But tech companies say the demand shows the need for the industry to tap into foreign resources.

"This leaves Cisco and other U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage if we cannot access the best and the brightest workers," said Heather Dickinson, a spokeswoman for network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc.

Companies who specialize in science, engineering and technology say the current system is a Catch 22: the United States is not producing enough homegrown job candidates and bars companies from bringing them in.

"Getting this right is important for the U.S. to maintain competitiveness," Krumholtz said. "It goes to our economic well-being."

The National Association of Manufacturers called for "a permanent fix" to address the need for highly skilled employees in manufacturing and other sectors.

There wasn't always such a mismatch in supply and demand. In 2000, the quota for H-1B visas was raised to 195,000 per year and was rarely reached, but when the tech boom collapsed, the quota was reduced to 65,000.

Technology companies have lobbied Congress to raise the quota but labor groups oppose a change, arguing that doing so would hurt U.S. employees' job prospects.

Krumholtz said roughly one-third of Microsoft's U.S.-based employees have required some form of visa assistance. Last year, Microsoft submitted about 1,200 applications for H-1B visas and was granted about 900, he said.

This year Microsoft is trying to improve its chances in the lottery by filing about 1,600 applications. "We've got between 3,000 and 4,000 core openings at Microsoft we're trying to find people for," Krumholtz said.

Microsoft's internal immigration staff expects it will "at best" get about 40 percent, or 640 visas, approved.

Bob Gaynor, a Boston-based attorney from specializes in immigration law, said his clients applying for H-1B visas this year are worried about their chances.

Gaynor, who represents dentists, intellectual property experts, engineers and accountants from India, Australia and Germany, among other countries, said he expected about 200,000 applications to flood the system on Tuesday.

"It's sad," Gaynor said. "These people really contribute to the business climate of the country."

(Additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando in New York, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)