Israeli companies with specialist teams in the US face an enforced time-out following the announcement by the US government that the quota of H1-B visas for foreign employees for 2007 has already been filled, just four months after it was opened.
According to specialist law firm Schwartz-Ken-Tor, which specializes in overseas visa applications, at least 1,000 Israeli managers, engineers and other professionals are relocated to the US every year under the H1-B visa category. The total visa quota is for 65,000 people, primarily high-tech employees, and it is effective from October 1 each year. The quota for 2007 has already been filled due to an exceptionally long waiting list. This will mean that high-tech and biotechnology companies with commitments to projects in the US will not be able to relocate staff. It will also affect their chances of winning further projects.
H1-B visas will now be available only from October 2008. The US Senate is due to debate a bill which, if passed into law, would increase the annual visa quota to 115,000, but a parallel bill has also been introduced in the House of Representatives, and it is not known at this stage whether the final version of the bill would include an increase in visa quotas.
Adv. Liam Schwartz said, “The business sector, especially the Israeli high-tech industry, has been badly hit been by the closure of the quota so soon, because we don’t have any alternatives that are available to people from countries such as Japan, Korea, Germany, France and the UK, who can apply for an E-2 visa.
”In addition, high-tech experts from other countries can also apply for other categories of visa not available to Israelis, such as TN, which was created under the aegis of the free trade agreement with the US, and E-3, which is granted to applicants from Australia.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 5, 2006
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