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 So they warned businesses Wednesday not to try to game the system by submitting multiple applications of H-1B visas, intended for skilled foreign workers, for the same employee.
Last April 1, 120,000 applications came in, nearly twice the annual limit of 65,000. As a result, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services conducted a lottery for the first time. High-tech businesses do not like that because it means they might not get their first-choice workers.
Immigration spokesman Chris Bentley said the agency found that that 500 duplicate applications were filed last year.
This year, "to ensure a fair and orderly distribution of available H-1B visas," the agency will deny all multiple petitions filed and will not refund the $320 filing fee, the agency said.
Bentley said given what happened last year, officials anticipate "that even more people would have tried to take advantage of this and tried to have gamed the system by filing duplication applications for the same employee."
The visas allow employers to hire foreign nationals with specific skills and are in high demand from Silicon Valley and other high-tech industries, which have asked Congress for years to lift the 65,000 cap. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates made the same appeal in testimony last week before Congress.
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 The program also allows an additional 20,000 visas for foreign nationals receiving master's or doctoral degrees from U.S. universities. A separate lottery would be conducted, presuming that cap also is exceeded, Bentley said.
Lawmakers' failure to pass immigration overhaul legislation in recent years has doomed attempts to raise the cap on the H-1B visas.
Some members of Congress are skeptical of how business are using the visas and say companies should focus on educating and recruiting homegrown talent. Some U.S. technology workers also contend that an expansion of the visa program is unnecessary and would only bring down wages and discourage American youngsters from pursuing tech careers.
Congress last raised the cap in 2000 -- to 195,000 per year -- when the country was enjoying a technology-propelled boom. The limit was brought back down to 65,000 in time for the 2004 budget year.
[Associated
Press; By ERICA WERNER]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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