Homeland Security approved 10,000 visas too many

WASHINGTON – The Homeland Security Department approved 10,000 more applications for visas for high-tech and specialty workers than Congress permitted for this fiscal year.

The mistake was made with H1-B visas, available to foreigners with a bachelor’s degree or higher who want to fill U.S. jobs in architecture, engineering, medicine, biotechnology and computer programming.

Only 65,000 H1-B visas are supposed to be given out this fiscal year, although Congress let the department exempt from the limit 20,000 foreigners with graduate degrees from American universities.

“It discourages me to hear that Congress’ limit may have been ignored,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a March 7 letter to Eduardo Aguirre, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Homeland Security Department. He has asked for an explanation and how the agency will prevent exceeding the limit again.

Agency spokesman Bill Strassberger said Friday a last minute surge in applications was responsible. The agency projects each year how many applications it can accept to stay within the limit. He said the agency doesn’t actually know if it has hit the cap until it has finished approving applications.

The H1-B program is facing other problems. The agency has angered employers with its interpretation of the law last year to provide H1-B visas for foreigners with U.S. graduate degrees.