US recession not to curb H-1B visa demand

As reported in Computerworld, “Recession unlikely to curb H-1B demand”, and the federal government is going to receive a record number of applications from employers seeking H-1B visas for workers from overseas. Apart from pent-up demand for H-1B visas and many of the largest H-1B users are offshore outsourcing firms, the fact is substantiated by none other than Microsoft’s Chairman Bill Gates at a congressional hearing this month, where he said that the annual visa cap "bears no relation to the U.S. economy's demand for skilled professionals." “…three bills proposing increases in the cap were introduced in Congress shortly after Gates spoke. Congress may make any cap increase retroactive -- a prospect that could encourage companies to submit H-1B applications just to make sure they have a place in line. For those reasons, there's a good chance that the number of H-1B petitions filed this year will exceed last year's total, further reducing the odds of getting a visa unless the cap is increased,” reported the magazine.

Posted by Praveen Panjiar,Blog Evangelist, OutworX Corporation