H-1B quota of 65,000 for fiscal 2010 filled up:BL 241209
Initiatives by Indian cos to hire local skills, says Nasscom.

Mr Som Mittal
More than eight months after it began receiving H-1B applications, the US Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS) has reached the Congressionally-mandated quota of 65,000 visa slots for FY2010.
Any new H-1B visa applications received after December 21, 2009 will be rejected.
"As per the latest available data, Indian companies have applied for fewer visas this year. In fact, this year
we have seen far more work being done from offshore locations, due to flexibility of customers. Also, given
the current employment situation in the US, companies have been hiring local workers. Many large Indian
companies have put in specific initiatives to hire local workers based on specific domain expertise," the
Nasscom President, Mr Som Mittal, told Business Line.
The pace of H-1B filings gained momentum in the last few weeks.In early October, over 18,000 H-1B visas
were available. This narrowed down to 9,400 visas (as on November 13) and 6,100 visas (November
27).Given the spike, the updates by USCIS on H-1B visa filings became more frequent in December.On
December 4, just about 3,900 slots were vacant, by December 8 only 3,500 visas slots remained, and last
week the applications received were just 800 short of the fiscal's quota of 65,000.Typical H-1B occupations
include architects, engineers, computer programmers, accountants, doctors and college professors.
Demand visibility
The US began accepting H-1B applications for fiscal 2010 on April 1, 2009, whereas the H-1B employment
season kicked off on October 1, 2009.While the stabilisation of the US economy was widely seen driving H-
1B appetite over the last few weeks, another reason could be the greater demand visibility attached to filings
post-October as the visas approved can be utilised almost immediately.Simply put, if a company applies for
H-1Bs just after April, in any case the visas can be used only when the season starts (in October).This
effectively means that the businesses that apply for H-1B visas need to have a medium-term visibility on
business environment.However, if they apply after October, they can utilise it immediately for positions that
are open.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, US Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz (from Texas) and US Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (from
Illinois) have introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity (CIR
ASAP) in the House of Representatives. The proposed Bill has sections on border security and enforcement
but also deals with areas such as H-1B visa fraud and abuse protection issues."The Comprehensive
Immigration Bill is likely to suggest that foreign students hired should directly get into the green card
processing rather than the H-1B pool," said Nasscom's Mr Mittal.