Microsoft is crediting foreign employees working with the company as having a huge contribution compared to native workers. Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel, expressed the Redmond company's continuous support and commitment to hiring non-US citizens via H-1B visas to fill in roles for which there is a shortage of local talent. The software giant is but one of the companies fighting over a limited number of H-1B visas, just 85,000 of them for the entire country, in an attempt to keep valuable foreign workers in the country. This despite the fact that Microsoft, in an attempt to respond to the negative impact of the global economic downturn, is cutting over 5,000 jobs by mid-2010.

Smith argued that ultimately the US needed foreign talent that made vital contributions to the country's technological development. “While the number of visa holders is very small compared to the U.S. workforce, their contribution is huge,” Smith said. “For example, last year 35 percent of Microsoft’s patent applications in the U.S. came from new inventions by visa and green card holders. The situation at other U.S. technology leaders is probably very similar. And a recent study found that for every H-1B position requested, U.S. technology companies increase their employment by 5 new jobs.”

Smith emphasized that Microsoft's success depended on its ability to keep foreign employees working with H-1B visas. This situation is related to the shortage in U.S.-born and bred computer and engineering graduates who no longer suffice to cover key-technology jobs. “While the vast majority of Microsoft’s U.S. workforce is American, Microsoft hires foreign workers to bring specially-needed skill sets to our U.S. operations and to fill roles when qualified American workers are not available,” Smith added.

Microsoft's General Counsel stressed that highly skilled employees coming to the U.S. represented a limited number of the overall H-1B visas awarded every year. Smith indicated that the vast majority of H-1B visas were filed for employees that were already working in the U.S. for several years.

“And the larger point remains – isn’t it in America’s best interests to keep the world’s top talent working here in the U.S., using their skills and ideas to invent the breakthrough products of tomorrow that will drive our economy and create jobs?” Smith asked.