According to the National Foundation for American Policy, during the recession “technology firms appeared to hire a larger share of [foreign skilled] workers compared with other top employers of professionals from overseas,” reports the Wall Street Journal. In the economic downturn, when “demand for such visas has slowed as some industries have scaled back their H-1B visa applications,” Silicon Valley tech companies, such as Google, Inc. and Intel, Corp., “were simply more successful in getting their H-1B applications through.”

“Silicon Valley’s share of such approvals was the highest it has been for several years,” totaling 2,110 approvals out of the 65,000 total awarded annually.

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