Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Waiting time for U.S. visa applicants

|
|
 
  
Published: May 1, 2007 at 1:35 PM

WASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- So many highly skilled workers applied for temporary U.S. visas this year that officials cut off applications 48 hours after the April 1 filing date.

The 65,000 temporary visas will be awarded this month with a computer lottery from more than 123,000 applications, USA Today reported. In comparison, last year the visas were awarded on a first-come basis and applications were accepted until May 26.

As the U.S. Congress prepares to look at immigration laws, one of the issues it will consider is whether more skilled workers should be permitted to move to the United States.

"I'd like to see America bring in the smartest people from everywhere and let them stay as long as they want," U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, told USA Today.

Others weren't so sure.

"The more people there are for those jobs, the worse off American workers will be," Harvard University economist George Borjas told the newspaper.

While applicants for the temporary worker visa were waiting to see if their number was picked, minor league baseball and hockey players had no suspense. USA Today reported that Congress last year exempted them from the work visa cap.

Topics: Chris Cannon
© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Father's Day: Celebrity dads The 2012 Miss USA competition Faces of the 2012 French Open
2012 MTV Movie Awards Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Notable deaths of 2012
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 21
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Remember ladies, beating your boyfriend because he won't marry you to renew your visa won't improve...
Try meth when you really have an itch, or when you want to see in two places at once. Warning: mildly...
"Speed and alcohol may have been a factor" say investigators about the man killed when thrown from...
Surprise parties have a little more gunfire in Arizona
Rehabilitated former "bath salts" zombie explains what it's like to hunger for the flesh of the...
Threatening to personally, intimately fertilize neighbor's yard at 3:30 AM is no way to make friends,...