Q: H-1B's Gone too Soon, Now What? 

A: In a recent article, The New York Times cited statistics from the Labor Department about ten major technology companies that currently outsource to India applied for over 100,000 H-1B visas last year. What happens when they don't get the visas they applied for? The H-1B applicants don't come to work in the U.S., and the jobs continue to go to India. These companies also likely had much to do with this year’s “H-1B Debacle”. On the very first day they were accepting applications for H-1B visas, the USCIS got nearly 120,000 petitions, many more than both the 65,000 and 20,000 caps combined, although the smaller cap was reached later in April.

The result was that H-1B “winners” were chosen by random selection (as opposed to intelligent design). Within a week, Senator Cornyn (R-TX) reintroduced the SKIL Act (S.1083) and Senator Hagel (R-NE) introduced “The High-Tech Worker Relief Act of 2007” (S.1092). Both bills would significantly raise the H-1B numerical cap and exempt additional workers from the cap.