The U.S. grants H-1b visas to employers, to hire temporary workers from other countries. 70% of these visas go to high tech companies.
The number of visas granted has varied, over the years, from about 65,000 up to a high of 200,000 back around 2000. The visas are good for three years, but renewable once. An additional 20,000 visas are allocated to those with a Masters or PhD from a U.S. university. Some categories of employment (notably academic and government facilities) are exempt from the cap of 65,000. There are also separate caps for certain countries such that the total is more than 100,000 per year, which due to renewability to six years, means up to 600,000 or more H-1b workers in the U.S. at any time.
An H-1b visa holder may also apply for permanent residency status as the visa is considered a “dual intent’ visa (employment + future residency).
Some workers hired under the H-1b are recent college grads, who if they have the right STEM degree can receive an OPT “practical training” visa granting a work visa for up to 29 months, afer which they may be hired on an H-1b visa (up to six years).
Finally, many workers are also brought to the U.S. on L-1 visas used by multi-national firms for transferring an employee from a division in one country to a division in the U.S.
A challenge for married H-1b workers is whether their spouses can legally work in the U.S.
Today, a Court ruled that the Federal government may issue H-4 visas to spouses of H-1b workers. There are many hundreds of thousands of H-1b workers in the U.S. and this Court ruling potentially increases the number of temporary imported workers dramatically.
Source: Tech Sector H-1B Workers’ Spouses Can Work in US, Judge Says – Bloomberg
It is my view that anyone with an international background, which is anyone working on a H-1b visa, or born abroad, is viewed as more desirable than U.S. residents who lack global experience.
A survey done by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 2000 found that about 28% of all U.S. tech jobs requiring a 4-year degree were held by H-1b workers.
The H-1b visa is contentious among U.S. workers. I personally know U.S. resident engineers who were laid off, and as a condition of receiving severance benefits, were required to train temporary H-1b workers who replaced the U.S. workers.
Due to the OPT, L-1, renewable H-1b visa combination, it is possible that at any period, there are around 1 million temporary foreign (mostly tech) workers in the U.S. With the granting of H-4 visas to spouses of H-1b workers, this total will climb even higher.