Bill Gates stumps for H-1B as debate rages

Microsoft's Bill Gates Wednesday told Congress it must relax caps on visas for highly-skilled foreign workers if the United States wants to remain "the world’s innovation leader."

While Gates had the ear of Congress, critics say the H-1B lowers wages or outright robs Americans of jobs. In addition, they say eligibility requirements are vague and the system is abused by foreign companies, who are only required to have a presence in the United States to use the H-1B visas for their employees.

Gates has been crusading the past few years on the topic of H-1B visas, which allow highly skilled immigrants to work in the United States, saying the cap of 65,000 per year is “arbitrarily low.”

But there is a different picture forming, critics say.

Recent statistics put out by the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services and the National Science Board show that many of the H-1B visas are going to foreign companies and that half of the recipients are from India.

Indian nationals received 54% all H-1B visas approved in 2006, according to a study by the National Science Board. That same year, 51% of all visa recipients worked in computer-related jobs.

A ranking released by the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services show that Microsoft and Intel are the only true major U.S. technology companies ranked in the Top 10 of visa approvals in 2007.

Ironically, the top two, outsourcers Infosys Technologies and Wipro are both based in Bangalore, India. In fact, the data shows six of the top 10 are based in India.

The top two companies were also the top two in fiscal 2006, according to data released last year by U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). The two senators claim outsourcers are abusing the H-1B rules. Last year, the pair introduced “The H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 2007.”

Critics contend foreign-based companies use their U.S. locations to train workers before funneling them back to India.

The jobs issue has been a contentious one and is even more so now that the United States is facing a recession.

“Bill Gates, Oracle, and Google strongly lobby for more visas,” says James Kritcher, vice president of IT at White Electronic Designs in Phoenix. “But at the same time, these companies receive thousands of resumes every week. I would think that they have their pick of top talent and could meet their hiring objectives without the use of visas.”

Some experts say American workers don’t find Microsoft or Gates to be genuine over concern for the future of U.S. innovation. Microsoft has foreign workers north of Redmond on the Canadian side of the border where immigration laws are more lax.

“Microsoft left the U.S.” by sending work and jobs overseas, says Sonia Munoz, president of Immigration Legal Counsel, a law firm specializing in immigration law. “Some Americans feel the H-1B is evil and gives away jobs [that] Americans could have, but if a company leaves physically from the U.S. – that takes away far more jobs than H-1B does.”