H-1B Visa Program Spirals Downwards

If the H-1B visa program is an indicator of the US economy, then reports of an economy revival might not be as true as they lead one to believe. The program, which incidentally is treasured by Indian IT professionals, has not been filled to capacity for the first time in a long while.

The US H-1B visa program offers 65,000 H-1B visas every year and these are usually snapped up early in the year. Even last year, with the recession beginning, these visas were all taken up very quickly. However, with the deepening of the downward slump in the economy, the current year is going to be seeing quite a number of these visa spots being left unfilled.

With 6 months gone since the US started accepting applications, there are almost 20,000 spots yet to be filled, prompting The Wall Street Journal to report this as 'America's Worst Downturn in Decades'. In fact, this will be the first time since 2003, that the 65 thousand odd applications have not been filled.

The bad state of the economy, coupled with the fact that the cost of hiring foreign workers is on the rise, may have contributed to this event. Also, strict anti-immigrant policies have made this, a more difficult task in recent years. The majority of the visas were filled by foreign IT professionals, and the technology sector was reputedly the largest contributor to filling these visa applications. Companies have now started hiring American employees, and outsourcing to Indian companies has also been cut back significantly.

Major companies, however, are looking for this cap of 65,000 to be increased, citing that market demands should decide the cap and not the Congress. On the other hand, an increase in the cap can only lead to further displacement in the US workforce, which is presently suffering from a 9.8% unemployment rate.

For foreign employees, one can only hope that the economy improves and the political pressure surrounding the H-1B program decreases.