Microsoft applies for fewer H-1B work visas

With ongoing layoffs and hiring slowed across the economy, Microsoft this year is applying for "substantially fewer" of the controversial H-1B temporary work visas for specialty occupations and expects other tech employers to do likewise, a top executive said Wednesday.

But General Counsel Brad Smith added that Microsoft still sees the program as an important part of its strategy to hire the best people, regardless of their citizenship.

"I don't think it's feasible or economically sensible for the country to have to fill every single open position without considering some of the best talent that's available from around the world," Smith said during a conference call with reporters on the same day U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began processing applications for the visas.

In the past, applications — which employers must sponsor — have quickly topped the allotted 85,000 H-1B visas granted each year.

"I think we're going to see substantially fewer H-1B applications filed this year compared to last year," Smith said, adding that for Microsoft, the majority of applications will be to extend the stays of existing guest workers rather than to make new hires.

With the recession pushing the U.S. jobless rate to 8.1 percent in February, the program has come under more scrutiny. After Microsoft's first companywide layoff, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, pressed the company to protect Americans over other workers.

"Our immigration policy is not intended to harm the American work force," Grassley wrote to CEO Steve Ballmer the day after the layoffs were announced in January. "Microsoft has a moral obligation to protect these American workers by putting them first during these difficult economic times."

Grassley is contemplating legislation that would push employers who use the H-1B program to do just that. Already, Congress made hiring H-1B workers more complicated for banks getting funds from the Troubled Assets Relief Program.

Critics of the H-1B program charge that it is wrought with fraud and that employers who want to reduce labor costs abuse it.

Others balk at the fact that top users of the program in recent years have been information-technology outsourcing companies, such as India-based InfoSys.

These companies were the top four recipients of approved H-1B visas in the 2008 federal fiscal year. Microsoft was the top recipient among U.S.-based companies, with 1,037.

Smith said about 10 percent of Microsoft's U.S. work force, which stood at 57,588 Dec. 31, are H-1B visa holders.

Microsoft announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs over an 18-month period beginning in January. It will also make 2,000 to 3,000 new hires, for a net reduction of about 2,000 to 3,000 workers.

Some laid-off workers contend their jobs are being repackaged and filled by foreign guest workers. Not so, said Smith.

"I do not believe that any of our new hires are being hired to fill positions that were eliminated," he said.

Further, Microsoft sought to place laid-off employees in areas where the company is adding staff.

"I think you certainly see companies do that ... for obvious reasons," Smith said. "They prize the talent they have, and companies have invested a great deal in their people."

Of the new applications the company is filing for the 2010 fiscal year, "a solid majority" are to convert existing employees working on so-called L visas to H-1B visas, rather than to make new hires.

The L visa is for employees of a company who are moved from a site outside the U.S. to one inside the country, Smith said.

Those workers are then eligible to apply for a green card and permanent residency.

"The problem is that there has been a very substantial backlog for green cards," Smith said.

As a result, workers reach the end of the five-year limit on L visas with no green card in sight and seek to convert to an H visa, "which is an absolutely permissible use of the H-1B visa program," Smith said.

Benjamin J. Romano: 206-464-2149 or bromano@seattletimes.com