Immigration legislation being debated in the Senate may not be enough to help D.C. area companies struggling to obtain visas for skilled foreign technical workers.
Technology companies based in the area have expressed frustration over the limits on visas for highly skilled workers, saying strict quotas and a complicated approval process can keep talented workers from coming to the United States, or foreign-born students at American universities from staying here.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Office announced in April it had already reached its cap for the number of temporary visas it will award to highly skilled workers for 2008. The immigration bill being debated this week in the Senate calls for an annual increase of temporary visas for highly skilled workers from 65,000 to 115,000.
But Jeff Lande, senior vice president for the Arlington-based Information Technology Association of America, said the current bill does nothing to increase the number of green cards for companies, which would create a more permanent solution to the problem.
The legislation also creates a “point system,” which ranks prospective immigrants according to factors like education and English proficiency.
But that system does not differentiate between industries more in need of workers than others, said Peter F. Asaad, an attorney with D.C.-based Immigration Solutions Group, which works with local companies to help them with immigration-related recruitment issues.
Companies in the area are particularly harmed by the fact that after an American-educated foreign student is hired, he can only remain in the country for a year before needing a highly coveted visa, Asaad said.
“The limits on the visas are pretty arbitrary, and don’t reflect the demands and needs of employers,” Asaad said. “Many students basically get sent away after working with companies for some time.”
Ashley Chen, chief executive officer of ActioNet, a Fairfax-based information technology company, said that before Sept. 11, her firm would frequently hire foreign nationals right after college and help them obtain visas. The visa shortage and a more cumbersome approval process since the attacks have forced her company to focus its recruitment within the United States, she said.
“But hiring people here who meet all our technical requirements is quite a challenge,” Chen said.
