In the expanding global marketplace, multinational companies must compete for human capital to maintain a competitive edge. According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the United States ranks sixth overall among 40 nations and regions in current innovation-based competitiveness, but last in rate of progress over the last decade toward building increased innovative capacity to compete in the international market.1 The ITIF identifies highly skilled foreign workers as intellectual capital critical in generating economic growth.2
Despite these startling statistics, recent government activity has significantly restricted U.S. employers from sponsoring highly skilled foreign workers in the most popular professional visa category, the H-1B. Through worksite inspections of H-1B employers, agency rulemaking that imposes heightened—and arguably overbroad—evidentiary requirements on H-1B sponsors, aggressive scrutiny of H-1B foreign nationals at the U.S. border, and restrictive legislation, the administration and Congress have sought to reduce both employer and foreign worker eligibility for the category. This article will provide background on the H-1B visa category and trace these recent developments, as employers prepare for the Fiscal Year 2011 H-1B filing season on April 1, 2010, which creates eligible workers on Oct. 1, 2010.
The H-1B Visa Program
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