This is an excelent history of how the H-1B program has evolved. One significant detail not mentioned is the H program originally did not allow dependents to accompany H-B holders.

Ambiguity Remains Despite Changes in H-1 Program
1952 law designed to let skilled foreigners work here temporarily
David Lazarus, Chronicle Staff Writer <mailto:dlazarus@sfchronicle.com>
Thursday, September 21, 2000
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URL: <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/09/21/MN49570.DTL>

SILICON VALLEY --
Today's H-1B visas have evolved from a system dating back nearly half a
century -- and are a far cry from their historical precursors.

The original purpose of H-1 visas was to allow skilled foreign workers to
fill temporary positions in the United States. They were not intended to
allow such workers to reside permanently in this country.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 defined a qualified H-1
recipient as ``an alien having residence in a foreign country which he has
no intention of abandoning, who is of distinguished merit and ability and
who is coming temporarily to the United States to perform temporary services
of an exceptional nature requiring such merit and ability.''

H-1 visas attracted only a limited number of applicants in the early years.
State Department records show that the number of applications exploded in
the 1970s, when about 20,000 visas were issued each year. The total number
of H-1s handed out more than doubled every decade since then.

A key reason for this was a 1970 decision by Congress to remove the word
``temporary'' from before ``services'' in the law's definition of who
qualifies for H-1 status. For the first time, H-1 recipients were allowed to
apply for permanent positions in the United States.

Meanwhile, Congress never clarified what ``distinguished merit and ability''
might mean, leaving unclear the exact nature of expertise H-1 applicants
must have.

The only guideline to date has been a 1970 administrative decision from the
Immigration and Naturalization Service observing that the term ``implies a
degree of skill and recognition substantially above that ordinarily
encountered, to the extent that a person so described is pre-eminent in his
field of endeavor.''

Needless to say, the ambiguity of such wording allows for considerable
leeway in how each visa application is processed. Generally speaking, it has
proved to be a blessing to applicants asking for entry to the United States
and a challenge to immigration officials striving to winnow out unqualified
candidates.

The first major overhaul of the H-1 system came in 1989 when a new category,
H-1A, was created to focus exclusively on nurses.
At that time, amid a chronic shortage of nurses in the United States, health
care workers were the leading H-1 recipients, accounting for 28 percent of
the total.

They were followed by entertainers and models (16 percent), engineers and
scientists (15 percent) and computer technicians (11 percent), according to
the General Accounting Office.

After passage of the Nursing Relief Act, all nonmedical visa applicants fell
under a new heading: H-1B. (The H-1A category has since been discontinued.)
During the 1980s, immigration officials were repeatedly criticized by labor
unions and politicians charging that the H-1 program had flooded the United
States with workers from abroad. A 1988 government report found that
numerous H-1 workers did not possess the skills intended by the system.
This led to the Immigration Act of 1990, which limited the number of H-1B
visas issued each year to 65,000 and recipients' stays in the United States
to six years.

At the same time, the legislation removed the stipulation that an H-1B visa
applicant ``have residence in a foreign country which he has no intention of
abandoning.''

This changed everything. In effect, the revised wording suddenly allowed
H-1B visa holders to pursue permanent residency -- the ``green card'' --
while working for an American employer.

Simultaneously, the U.S. high- tech industry, fed by almost daily
innovations spilling out of Silicon Valley, experienced such rapid growth
that it could not find enough skilled workers to keep pace with demand.
By 1999, according to immigration officials, tech workers from abroad
accounted for more than 60 percent of all H-1B visas issued, and of this
number, about half came from India.

``India has become the dominant nation quite certainly because it has a
large supply of computer-trained workers and, quite likely, because prior
waves of Indian information- technology workers have successfully
established a beachhead in the industry that places them first in the demand
queue,'' B. Lindsay Lowell, research director at Georgetown University's
Institute for the Study of International Migration, said in a recent report.


Amid aggressive lobbying by the technology industry, Congress passed
legislation in late 1998 raising the limit of H-1B visas issued annually to
115,000. Legislators are now mulling a further increase to about 200,000
visas a year.

``The current system is already strained beyond its capacity,'' Lowell
concluded. ``As Congress proposes to significantly increase the population
of H-1Bs, it will be increasing the number of would-be permanent
immigrants.''

The government's growing backlog of applications for green cards, he said,
``will make one more promise to immigrants that it cannot keep.''

E-mail David Lazarus at dlazarus@sfchronicle.com.
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