Following the introduction of a federal bill last month to increase the cap on visas for international workers, university officials have been involved in lobbying efforts to expand the number of visas available for its employees and graduated international students.
Last Tuesday, the government began accepting applications for H-1b visas, which allow international workers with a bachelor’s degree to work in the U.S., but capped the number of available visas at 65,000.
The cap was reached just hours later, raising concerns from the legislature and the university that some students would not be able to work for a long-term period in the U.S.
Representatives Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., proposed to raise the cap to 115,000 to alleviate the strain on foreign workers looking for jobs in the U.S.
Sylvia Ottemoeller, an immigration counselor at the Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars at UCLA, said the school’s employees are exempt from the cap on H-1b visas, since immigration law states that higher education institutions and non-profit organizations are not subject to the cap.
But Bob Ericksen, director of the Dashew Center, said in a statement that graduating international students who are looking for work in the U.S. are often still affected.
“The current H-1b situation is indeed a crisis for our international students who may aspire to make creative and substantive contributions to their field through working in the U.S.,” the statement said.
Ericksen added that with the visa cap being met so quickly, an international student looking to work in the U.S. after graduation has to pay close attention to application deadlines.
“(Otherwise), the student will be denied an important work opportunity and the employer will lose a talented potential employee,” he said.
UCLA enrolls the 11th highest number of international students in the U.S.
The UC has lobbied Congress to increase the cap, and UCLA is a member of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers: Association of International Educators, an organization involved in lobbying Congress on behalf of international students affected by the cap on H-1b visas, said Jimmie White, assistant director of the Dashew Center.
Jayshree Radhakrishnan, a career counselor at the Career Center, is a foreign worker who graduated from Ohio State University and has an H-1b visa. She said the Career Center encounters many international students looking to work in the U.S. after graduating.
“We’ve come across a lot of students who want to work in the U.S. for an extended period of time,” she said.
Radhakrishnan said she believes international students help make important contributions to U.S. companies.
“Many of the students who come to (this) country come from the top 10 percent of academic backgrounds of their own countries,” she said. “The American workplace can’t help but benefit.”
But opponents of the proposed legislation argue that allowing foreign workers into the U.S. will decrease wages and keep jobs from American workers.
“The idea is, “˜Why aren’t these employers hiring U.S. workers?'” Ottemoeller said.
Though some students may not be able to remain employed in the U.S. long-term, White said international graduates can still work for a short period after they receive their degree through the Optional Practical Training program.
The program allows international students who have received a degree from any American university to work in the U.S. for a year.
But White said after the OPT expires, students often struggle to get an H-1b visa.
“It puts a lot of challenge on the students to plan ahead,” he said, adding that OPT generally expires in June or July and students are then faced with a gap in time before their H-1b visa begins in the fall.
White said international students are particularly important to the university because they often have specialized math or science skills that fewer U.S. students have.
“We have a problem in America with adequate math and science teaching,” he said. “We don’t put out enough kids into the college (with these skills) to sustain the kind of research that UCLA professors are involved in.”
Ottemoeller also echoed this view.
“In many of the engineering departments and sciences, (international students) can be half or more of the graduate students. UCLA really depends on the international students,” she said.
Both White and Ottemoeller also noted that international students pay higher fees, which are an important source of revenue for the UC.
Kathy Sims, director of the UCLA Career Center and a member of the Communications Board, said since there are no guarantees in receiving a visa, graduating students should start job hunting early.
“If you start early your chances are improved, but there’s so many things that potentially impact your chances,” she said.