First Came the 'Jobs Americans Won't Do'... Now It’s the 'Jobs Americans Aren't Smart Enough to Do'

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When Bill Gates testified on Capitol Hill this spring, he said American business needs more foreign workers. Gates said, ideally, he would prefer no cap on the number that could be brought in to work in the United States. Microsoft is reported to have about 4,000 employees for whom it is now working to obtain permanent residency.

There are numerous work-related visas that are used to bring in foreign workers, and U.S. businesses are clamoring for even more of those workers, many lobbying under Gates’ vision of no limits. The visa getting much attention—and what Gates was arguing for unlimited access to—is the H-1B. Theoretically, it is used to bring in nonimmigrant foreign workers to fill highly skilled professional slots in science, engineering, technology and programming.

In actuality, applicants in recent years have ranged from companies seeking a business communications specialist for an Oriental rug dealer in Los Angeles at $17 an hour to a mortgage loan officer for an annual salary of $39,000 in San Francisco. Immigration attorney Angelo Paparelli, who also is president of the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, says he sees H-1B requests for “virtually every professional classification and every size business.â€