Requests for high-skilled visas may exceed supply

WASHINGTON -- The Homeland Security Department expects applications for high-skilled immigration visas to outpace the available supply in a matter of days, one of the fastest runs on the much-sought-after work permits in years and a sign of continued economic recovery amid new hiring by U.S. technology companies.

The urgent race for such visas -- highly desired by Microsoft, Apple, Google and other leading technology companies -- coincides with congressional plans to increase the number available to tech-savvy foreigners.

The race to secure one of the 85,000 so-called H-1B visas available for the 2014 budget year started Monday and requests will be accepted through at least Friday. If petitions outpace the availability in the first week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services -- for the first time since 2008 -- will use a lottery to pick which companies get visas to award to prospective employees.

"It will be a frenzy, because the cap . . . is nowhere near high enough to meet demand," said Robert Holleyman, president and CEO of the Software Alliance, a trade group for technology companies.

Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Christopher Bentley said the agency won't know for certain whether a lottery is necessary until next week. The agency warned businesses about the anticipated crush of applications last month.

Each year 65,000 visas are awarded to companies looking to hire high-skilled workers from around the world; 20,000 more visas are available specifically for foreign workers who have earned a master's or another advanced degree from a U.S. university.

Even if applications don't exceed availability this week, immigration attorneys and other experts predicted they would be snatched up faster than in recent years. It took 10 weeks to hit the cap in the 2013 budget year that began last October and more than 33 weeks to dole out all the available visas the year before.