As immigration officials started accepting applications Monday for the 85,000 H-1B visas available to foreign workers this year, a new report — led in part by former Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah — says U.S. companies really need more than twice that many.
“Last year, employers filed 190,098 petitions—of which 95,855 were filed on behalf of foreign-born professionals who had earned a graduate degree from a U.S. university— but only 85,000 of these petitions could be approved,” Hatch wrote in the forward to the study. “Thousands of talented professionals who employers have selected for hire and who are poised to make contributions to our economy are being turned away, including the very people who already know our language and understand our culture and who have conducted research here as graduate students.