Companies flooded the U.S. government with applications for more high skilled H-1B visas on Apr. 1, the first day of the annual application period. At the same time, U.S. tech companies are calling on Congress to raise the annual cap on visas issued (BusinessWeek.com, 3/31/08). But two longstanding critics of the program are pushing in the other direction. On Apr. 1, Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent letters to 25 Indian outsourcing firms—which are responsible for 20,000 new H-1B visas in 2007, or about a third of the annual cap—asking them to explain how they use the H-1B visa program.
"We'll hear arguments all day as to why the cap on H-1B visas should be raised, but nobody should be fooled," said Grassley in a prepared statement. "There are highly skilled American workers being left behind, searching for jobs that are being filled by H-1B visa holders. It's time to close the loopholes and enact real reform."
