Google submitted somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 H-1B applications this April for 2009.

Last year, 248 of its visa applications were accepted by the Labor Department. But thats not all. Around 70, which is more than 25%, were rejected, according to Wolfe, who is Google’s global mobility manager.

The company has no definite plans on how many applications it plans to file each year. Depending on the business, if it grows or is expected to grow in a certain field, they add more bodies in the department.

When the business is good (or exceptionally good in the case of Google!) they seek to attract, hire, and retain the world’s top talent, both U.S.-born and non-U.S.-born. Google is committed to hiring the best and brightest employees, regardless of country of origin.

Wolfe, the mobility manager also offered a couple of examples of the numerous “incredibly talented” employees it has hired and trained in the U.S. under the H-1B visa program.

Read the full story

Businessweek has an interesting yet nothing-new story on visas for high-skilled workers in the United States. The program is known as H-1B visas and it was initially created to allow local American companies to hire talent from around the world in fields where the man power is in short supply.

Read the full story

H1B is the skilled worker visa which allows American companies to hire talent from abroad and sponsor them to work on-site in the country. The preparations for the next year filing has already begun as is apparent from the flier which I got in-my in box few days back.

The issue of foreign workers has always been a contentious one. Although the opinion is still divided on whether the country needs such a program, the issue often gets clubbed with the debate of illegal immigration & reforms and gets buried down in the process.

Read the full story

Associated Press 11.19.07, 4:35 PM ET

WASHINGTON -

The Information Technology Association of America, whose more than 300 members include Microsoft Corp., Dell Inc. and Yahoo Inc., hired PLM Group LLC to lobby the federal government on immigration matters, according to a disclosure form.

The firm will lobby on issues related to the H-1B visa program, which allow companies to hire skilled foreign professionals for up to six years, according to the form posted online Nov. 13 by the Senate’s public records office.

Tech companies argue there aren’t enough visas to meet their needs for certain skilled positions and have long pushed to increase its cap from the current 65,000 per year - a number that has stayed relatively flat since 1990. Earlier this year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received 150,000 applications for the 2008 H-1B visas in a single day.

Read the full story