With a severe staffing shortage in the high tech fields, roughly 841,000 high tech positions will go unfilled this year alone. This leaves many recruiters looking internationally for the skills that simply are not available in the United States. Immigration issues have become a hot topic, not only in the high tech world, but in Congress as well. The H-1B visa, a high tech work visa, has a cap of 115,000 applications per fiscal year, but several bills in Congress are asking to raise the cap for fiscal year 2001.

Many skilled workers are immigrating to the U.S. on these high tech work visas or even permanent residency visas (green cards). Utilizing international talent allows large and small companies to:

Create new software, provide network programming, and many other technological advancements
Finish ongoing projects which are in need of immediate attention
Contribute to the positive impact of technology on the U.S. economy