The annual sweepstakes for visas for highly skilled temporary foreign workers begins on Tuesday, the opening day for applications to the vastly oversubscribed immigration program that is the center of a growing controversy in Congress. The federal authorities will accept petitions from employers for 65,000 temporary work visas, known as H-1Bs, that are available for the year that starts Oct. 1. Last year, the agency received enough petitions to cover the annual quota on the first day applications were accepted. About half of the total petitions filed were rejected because the supply of visas had run out. Technology companies have urged Congress to raise the annual limit, saying they face damaging shortages of the computer engineers and software technicians that these visas attract.
See "Visa Application Period Opens for Highly Skilled Workers", Julia Preston, The New York Times, March 31, 2008