Phil Mintz, a veteran journalist, tracks the US and Global management education scene. He will write exclusive columns for India’s leading management portal MBAUniverse.com.
“Here at BusinessWeek, we’ve been covering a story that’s of great interest to international B-school students – the shortage of H-1B work visas.
The H-1B visas, which allow non-U.S. citizens to be employed temporarily in a specialty occupation, were oversubscribed in just two days in early April, leaving many otherwise eligible MBAs scrambling for alternatives. (See “A Visa Squeeze for Foreign MBAs” http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/may2007/bs20070514_587413.htm). Even those students whose applications were received before the cut-off were placed in a lottery to see who would get the visas. It was hit-or-miss whether applicants received one or not.
This is a particularly vexing problem for students from India. In the fiscal year 2005, about 44% of all H-1B visa petitions were for workers born in India, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. And in fiscal year 2006, seven of the top 10 applicants for H-1Bs were Indian outsourcers, led by Infosys and Wipro.
The quick depletion of the original batch of H-1B visas left MBAs with one other alternative, to try for one of the 20,000 H-1B visas reserved for students with Masters Degrees. Some B-schools rushed to help international students complete the graduation process – asking profs to get their grades in first, for instance -- but many did not finish by the time these additional visas ran out in early May. Students who lost out have some other options – including provisions for working in “practical training” and trying again for a visa next year, but it’s certainly not an encouraging prospect.
The visa issue is a hot-button topic in the U.S., as it is caught up in the larger national debate over immigration and the loss of American jobs overseas, especially to countries such as India. (See “Crackdown on Indian Outsourcing Firms” http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/may2007/db20070515_218119.htm]. There are proposals to expand the H-1B program – supported by a coalition of employers, mainly technology companies – but expansion of the program is opposed by labor unions that argue that more visas will hurt American workers.
Meanwhile, international students, who are uncertain whether or not they’ll get a visa after studying in the U.S., are caught in the middle, and may be turning to B-schools in other countries. That’s not an encouraging prospect for American B-schools.”
Phil Mintz in the B-Schools Channel Editor for BusinessWeek.com in New York. He can be reached at [email protected].
