Visa Lawyer Blog
Here is the latest on the H1B visa numbers. May 21, 2010 H-2B Cap Count
As of 05/21/10, USCIS receipted 26,422 H-2B petitions, towards the 47,000 beneficiaries target for the second half of the fiscal year.* This count includes 25,178 approved and 1,244 pending petitions.
With all the hype, hysteria and hot air generated around the H1-B visa program issue during the past several years, one fundamental truism remains: the current annual level of H-1B visas being utilized in the United States is about the same level as in 1990.
This is pretty amazing when one considers two facts: 1) the U.S. GDP has risen by 64 percent during the past 19 years (from from $8.5 trillion to $14 trillion) and 2) and during the same time frame, the U.S. technology industry – by far the largest group to take advantage of H1-B visas and arguably its largest beneficiary grown by a considerably larger margin on an annual percentage basis.
Our government is making it increasingly difficult for U.S. companies to hire the “best and brightest.” The irony here is that we have never had a greater sense of urgency when it comes to fostering new thinking and technology development in the areas of biotech, clean tech, healthcare, and IT and in driving innovation across all geographies.