Will Facebook's H1-B strategy win over investors?

Posted By Angelina Gabriel

Today, many high technology companies have adopted the H1-B visa model for their business. This model relies heavily on foreign technology workers to fulfill technology positions in the United States.

American  companies, that have whole-heartedly adopted the models,  have United States based work forces that consist  almost entirely of foreign nationals.  The dependency on technical H1-B visa labor is so great, that many in the high technology community fear that without the continued supply of more and more foreign nationals, their companies will fail.

This fear of failure has sent many high technology companies scrambling to pressure congress to raise the annual limit on  high-tech foreign nationals and bickering among each other. The complaint is that companies that have more H1-B visa workers have a decided competitive advantage over those that don't.  This, of course, means that investors place H1B-less companies on the sell list and H1-B loaded companies on the buy list.

Such concerns may be the reasons for the recent pro-H1-B marketing campaign that Facebook has launched.  Facebook lost with its IPO and it doesn't want to lose again. An effort to convince the public that America needs more high tech foreign workers may in the end give Facebook the  labor advantage that it wants and give  investors the feeling that Facebook is doing the right thing.

The big if though is whether congress will go along with the high technology industries proposal or the myriad of other proposals from other industries that bow also have an appetite for skilled foreign workers.

The other big if in the Facebook investment equation is the validity of the H1-B visa business model all together. The fear is, that like old  technology, the H1-B visa model doesn't really work any more and for that matter never really did.