CS Solutions, an IT services company in Minneapolis, can't fill one-third of the company's 50 open positions and can't secure the H-1B visas required to bring in qualified foreign workers to take the jobs. To meet its business growth plan for next year, the company needs to hire an additional 100 workers. Searching for candidates has become a time-consuming and frustrating task at CS Solutions.

Recruiting is made even more difficult for CS Solutions and other companies like it because of the U.S.' cumbersome visa process and restrictive immigration policies. The H-1B visa program tops the problematic list for employers. Currently, the U.S. caps the number of these visas issued annually at 65,000, or about 1% of the total U.S. science and engineering workforce. In 2005, the H-1B cap was reached two months before the fiscal year even began.

Legislation to raise the cap to 115,000 is part of a bundle of immigration law reforms before Congress now. Without a substantial increase in the cap, U.S. employers will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to recruiting skilled science and engineering workers. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has asked Congress to eliminate the H-1B caps entirely.

When a company can't get an H-1B employee, they often end up settling for a less experienced worker or making a dramatic increase in their starting offer. Less experienced hires can require up to six months of training, pushing labor costs up.

Jobs that H-1B employees fill go beyond just IT positions. Large companies often need employees who can work with clients based in other countries and handle language and logistics concerns. U.S. workers with this type of knowledge are in short supply.

The visa cap is damaging the U.S. university feeder system for foreign talent as well. For example, students might be educated here for semiconductor work and then have to return to their home country when their visa expires. Foreign students account for 55% of all doctoral candidates and 41% of all masters candidates in U.S. engineering graduate schools. Many foreign students who might have come to U.S. universities go elsewhere because of uncertainty about the ability to move their student visa to an H-1B visa.

The common perception is that most H-1B visa holders are from India. However, only 22% now working at American companies are from that country. H-1B visa holders originate from countries in every part of the world.

Even when U.S. recruiters are successful at securing H-1B visas for a foreign employee, extending the stay past the six-year period is extremely difficult because of complexities involved with the green card process. Most companies end up losing their valued and trained employees after their visas expire.

Those who oppose immigration in general and alliances of U.S. high-tech workers have thwarted reform efforts to date. At a minimum, the H-1B visa process adds $3,000 to $5,000 to recruiting costs per candidate. Yet, most U.S. companies do not have good alternatives and need the employees, regardless of the costs and frustrations involved.