U.S. employers hit cap for H-1B visa petitions for fiscal year 2011 in 10 months -longest since 2004

[Renew Deal]

Late last week, the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) announced that it has reached the statutory cap for H-1B petitions for fiscal year 2011. If all these petitions are granted, this means the USCIS has hit the limit of 65,000 visas for this year, nearly 10 months after the application window opened -- the longest stretch since 2004. Chalk it up to a still-slow economy with weak hiring numbers, H-1B related or otherwise, as the statutory limit was reached in a month or two (or sometimes even in a matter of weeks) during healthier economic times.

As always, the announcement has stirred up a round of debate on whether the quota should be changed, whether the cap should be in place at all, and whether the United States should be giving out H-1B visas to begin with. Labor groups say the visas take jobs away from American workers, and they argue that in this economic climate with so much unemployment, domestic workers should be given top priority before companies turn to foreign labor.
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http://www.infoworld.com/t/work-visas/the-cooling-market-h-1b-visas-990

[Vincardog]

1. domestic workers should be given top priority before companies turn to foreign labor, DUH