Silicon Valley hiring surges, H-1B visa demand is strong

Silicon Valley hiring surges, H-1B visa demand is strong The USCIS began accepting H-1B visa applications for the new year on April 1, and current ordinary H-1B applications...

Silicon Valley hiring surges, H-1B visa demand is strong The USCIS began accepting H-1B visa applications for the new year on April 1. Currently, the number of ordinary H-1B applications exceeds 32,500, which is three times the 10,200 applications in the same period last year. High-educated H-1B applications are also nearly twice the number in the same period last year. Speculation follows that technology companies' aggressive recruitment of foreign workers will reignite discussions about immigration regulations. After several years of steady trends, the number of H-1B visa applications has risen sharply this year, which is seen as another sign of the U.S. economic recovery. In addition to the approximately 32,500 general H-1B visa applications, there are currently another 13,700 H-1B applications filed by foreign workers with a master's degree or above from an American university. Highly educated H-1B visas are not included in the 65,000 annual quota; they have individual caps of 20,000. But the increase won't lead to a repeat of 2007 and 2008, when H-1B visa quotas were exhausted within days and many people missed out. Then the recession slowed hiring, temporarily easing the visa crunch. Berry, chairman of the Programmers Guild organization that opposes H-1B visas, does not believe that the increase in visa applications this year is a sign of an overall rebound in the technology industry. ?#19981;It's hard to say anything without knowing who the applicant is or the skills they require. ?/FONT> The government won't reveal those details until the end of the year, but some job market reports have confirmed a surge in hiring in the Bay Area's high-tech sector. Faced with a surge in hiring, members of Congress from both parties have introduced bills for high-skilled immigrant workers, entrepreneurs or college graduates in Silicon Valley. The latest proposal was introduced on Tuesday by Texas Republican Senator Cornyn, who proposed adding 55,000 permanent residence visas (green cards) to foreign graduate students who graduate from American universities in the fields of science, technology, engineering or mathematics. If these students want to stay in the United States, many of them have to find H-1B sponsoring companies. To offset these additional visas, Cornyn's bill advocates eliminating the diversity visa lottery that awards 55,000 green cards each year to countries with a low proportion of immigrants to the United States. This type of bill that is beneficial to highly educated immigrants has also won the favor of both parties.