13 US Governors for hiking H1-B visa limit

The controversial H1-B visa issue got a fresh lease of life as 13 Governors from the US "" including Democrats and Republicans "" sent a letter to the Congress, exhorting it to revisit the issue since there was a "critical shortage of highly-skilled professionals in math and science to fill the current needs".

The earlier attempts of the Indian IT industry and the US Congress to push for an increase in the number of H1-B visa limit got entangled in the contentious immigration bill that finally got defeated.

The 13 governors including the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, stated in the letter that states are making significant investments in the education sector to be able to find the world's best educated workers among their own countrymen. However, till then, this shortage has to be addressed through foreign skills.

The letter states: "Today, we and our nation face a critical shortage of highly skilled professionals in math and science to fill the current needs. Until we are able to address this workforce shortage, we must recognise that foreign talent has a role to play in our ability to keep companies located in our states and country; and, therefore, need to ensure the increased availability of temporary H1-B visas, and permanent resident visas (green cards)."

The letter further notes that "if states like ours are to remain world leaders in innovation and intend to continue to see the job growth that is so vital to our economies, we must keep our employers in our states and ensure there is a skilled workforce in this country to fill their immediate needs. While wholesale immigration reform may not be possible in the 110th Congress, we urge Congressional action this year that recognises states' immediate need to recruit and retain professionals in key sectors, while we continue to produce here at home the skilled workforce our companies need in the long-term."

Kiran Karnik, President Nasscom, in a statement to the media had earlier stated: "We feel that the cap should be large enough to allow market forces to operate freely within it, as happened when it was 1,95,000. Constraining the supply when demand is high gives rise to problems for both the US and the Indian IT companies."

Several congressional proposals too propose expanding the annual cap, but some politicians have voiced their concern that the programme is being abused in a way that replaces American workers or depresses their wages in comparable positions. The issue has also generated a lot of flak from groups representing American tech-workers.

While the demand to increase the number of visas have been due to the fact that the current number of visas available are running out faster and faster every year. The governors have also stressed that the current base cap of 65,000 was arbitrarily set in 1990, and today bears no relation to their economy and their states demand for skilled professionals.