Apparently, there's more than one way to get a visa for bringing foreign workers into the U.S.

Despite IT's cries for "more, more, more," the potential increase in H-1B visas is about as dead as that song I just referenced.

"Necessity being the mother of invention, companies are turning to another part of the alphabet, the L-1 visa, as a way to bring the same guest workers here that were unable to get in under the H-1B cap," Ephraim Schwartz explains in L-1 visas being misused, attorney says.

The original intent of the L-1 visa was to allow multinationals or foreign companies with affiliates in the U.S. to bring in managers, executives, or people with specialized knowledge not available here, Schwartz explains.

Now, one might expect the government to get wise to this and even re-think its stance on H-1Bs. (Or not, depending on point of view.)

"But with the election not until November and the new president not taking office until late January, don't expect anything to happen with a review of H-1B visas for at least eighteen months."

Posted by Tom Sullivan on March 3, 2008 09:19 AM