Demand for H1-B visas, which employers use to hire skilled foreign workers, has exploded in Oregon in the past five years.
Oregon companies received 2,458 H1-B visas last year, more than triple the number from five years ago, according to recently released data from the U.S. Department of Labor.
The trouble, say those in the high-tech and manufacturing industries, is the federal government limits the number of visas nationwide to 65,000, down from nearly 200,000 during the dotcom boom.
Competition for the visas reached an all-time high this year, putting Oregon's Silicon Forest and nascent manufacturing sector in a bind. At the same time, more industries, including banking and health care, are now turning to H1-Bs to fill critical work force needs.
In previous years, the program was almost exclusively used by high-tech companies and manufacturers.
"This year was the worst of the worst," said Pat Haim, a Portland attorney for Littler Mendelson PC, one of the nation's largest labor and employment law firms.
The federal government started receiving applications for this year's batch of H-1B visas on April 2. By April 3, it had received more than 150,000 applications, nearly one for every three available.
As a result, hundreds of businesses in Oregon and across the country will have to wait until next year to hire critical college-educated employees, such as engineers and programmers. The results could be severe.
"The U.S. is at risk of losing the competitive edge," said Jack Krumholtz, managing director for federal government affairs for Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. "The work will have to be done somewhere. If we can't get the people here, you're going to see more work done outside the U.S."
Microsoft has 3,000 positions for which it can't find skilled workers, Krumholtz said. All applicants for an H-1B visa must have at least a bachelor's degree. Many have advanced certificates and degrees.
The cap has an even more cruel effect on small businesses. Titans such as Microsoft can afford to hire the top talent from U.S. universities, leaving smaller companies battling for the leftovers.
Portland-based Jive Software used the program for the first time last year to bring a South American contractor, Gaston Dombiak, in-house.
"We knew his potential would be double what he could do down there if he was around the team more often," said CEO Dave Hersh.
If the company had been unsuccessful at obtaining an H-1B visa, it would have had to scramble to find a local worker.
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