Stephanie, I think one of the reasons that you aren't getting much CIO feedback is because they don't typically hire H1-B's directly. They usually work through service providers who provide them with the talent they need. So this is someone else's problem.

Tech companies on the other hand do hire H1-B's directly (they also use service providers), so they are the most vocal on this issue. That is why you hear Microsoft and Oracle speak so loudly and never hear a CIO.

The bigger issue is that if we need foreign workers with particular skills, we should bring them here permanently -- not as temporary workers. H1-B visas are lose/lose for American workers and those that come to the U.S. on these.

Why are these lose/lose? Because most of those that come to the U.S. want to stay. When H1-B workers file for green cards, the are stuck in the same job for 6-10 years. During most of this period, they really can't change jobs -- otherwise they have to start the process again and get to the back of the queue. Employers aren't worried about them leaving so they don't offer them the same wage increases and perks they offer others. This causes a negative overall effect on wages.

Our research (www.globalizationresearch.com) has shown that at present there are over 1 million skilled immigrants and their families in queue for a yearly allocation of 120,000 green cards. There are probably 200,000 tech workers stuck in immigration limbo in this queue -- and the majority of these are likely to be on H1-B visas.

Again, these aren't matters CIO's worry about. They worry about keeping their users happy and having company infrastructure running efficiently.

I graduated with a degree in CS 2 years ago from a private University. I took Artificial intelligence, Operating systems, Discrete Math, and Parallel Programming to name a few of my more advanced courses. Unfortunately, despite the challenging coursework I took it does not qualify me to work in IT because most companies are short sighted when it comes to hiring new graduates without experience. I am confident that within 6 months of on the job training I could become an excellent IT professional and that the course work I took would surely enable me to match my competition from abroad (not to mention the inherent advantage of communicating with the business in the native tongue).

There is talent-a-plenty here in the U.S. and domestic applicants should be looked at first because it is in the best long term interests of the U.S. economy. Unfortunately for me and many other young people most companies have forgotten about mentorship and training. Simply mentor and train new graduates and you will have all the IT talent you need right here on US soil.

This is a great question, where are all the CIO's on the H1-B debate. CIO's like other senior leaders in organizations are afraid to speak out on sensitive topics like this.

Where are all the CIO's ? Well here is one........

First let me ask, if you are looking for comments from CIO's are they

1) US Born CIO's
2) Naturalized CIO's (through immigration)
3) Foreign or Alien CIO's (pre-naturalized) within the US
4) Foreign or Alien CIO's outside the US

As a non-US citizen, yet a CIO I believe we need to understand that the shortage of resources is a bigger issue than just within the borders of the United States of America. Although the US is a large market, but not the largest in the world. Operating within a municipality in Canada, we too face shortages of qualified workers. NOW before you right me off as a Canadian and without an opinion on the H1-B matter, think about the global economy. There are many organizations that move staff and management in and out of the US to foreign destinations to work on a regular basis.

Should the US be as restrictive as they are regarding immigration? Does any country have enough people to RUN the country? If there are labour shortages in any country, won't people naturally come from another country to take advantage of those opportunities, that is what the US was built on in the late 1800's and early 1900's, much like Canada. I guess the challenge is that people want to come to fill the gaps but they are not able to get through the funnel in a timely fashion. How will this impact the US economy?

I would ask, is this problem unique to the IT/Telecommunications/Technology industry ? If not can US workers be retrained into IT positions. If it is beyond the industry and in many industries then this is definitely a much larger problem than a group of CIO’s can address.

Those are my two cents.....

Which H1B debate are we talking about?

If it is the one about adequacy of H1B visas, my view is that there is no way to tell until we know how many are currently misused (not synonymous to abused). H1Bs are to be obtained for a certain period of time (3 years extensible to a few more after that). Therefore it is suited for 'projects' requiring certain skills (forget 'specialized' for the moment). Instead I suspect in many cases hiring managers find such temporary nature a good fit for their usually 'temporary' planning process. By that I mean very few real long term strategies are sure enough for a company to go hire a large number of permanent staff. In other words, H1B I suspect may have become a succor for managers who don't want to commit their organization to a particular long term strategy or skill-set/level mix. This is also probably why fewer organizations are prepared to invest the 6 months of training and mentoring in developing a new recruit (refer Dave's remarks above).

If the debate on the other hand is about whether H1B is good or bad - that train left a long time ago. I don't think we have a choice. Hypothetically speaking, if H1B is banned today I would guess more jobs would go offshore outright than what would lead to developing the local worker.