DAVID GREENE, HOST: NPR's business news starts with a spike in visa applications.</s>DAVID GREENE, HOST: Yesterday marked the start of the application period for H1B visa. These are the work permits granted to 85,000 skilled foreigners each year. Many of them work in the high-tech industry. Now for the first time since the financial crisis hit in 2008, the quotas for the H1B are expected to be filled in a single week. And analysts are pointing to this as a sign the U.S. economy may be returning to gross levels seen before the crash.
Monday marked the start of the application period for H1B visas — those are the work permits granted to 85,000 skilled foreigners each year. Many of them work in the high-tech industry. And for the first time since the financial crisis hit in 2008, the quotas for the H1B are expected to be filled in a single week.