H-1B workaround? Bay Area tech firms offer automated visa process to skilled workers

Vocal critic supports the program but questions what PassRight can deliver

Demand for the controversial H-1B visa that Bay Area tech companies rely on always surpasses available visas, but now a San Francisco company says it has a solution for foreign workers seeking U.S. jobs: automated help getting a so-called “genius visa.”

PassRight wants to steer highly qualified workers toward the O-1 visa, which, according to the U.S. government, is for people of “extraordinary ability or achievement.”

Often called the genius visa, the work permit is intended for superstars in sciences, arts, education, business, athletics, movies and TV.

“Through its ‘O-1 is the new H-1B’ program, PassRight is creating an innovative way for U.S. companies to recruit foreign talent,” the company said in a press release.

“The solution involves the semi-automation of the O-1 visa.”

Good for up to three years, with extensions possible, the O-1 has no cap, unlike the lottery-based H-1B, which has an annual limit of 85,000 new visas.

PassRight’s service provides an “automated screening process” that allows potential visa applicants to see if they might qualify for an O-1, then complete about 80 percent of their application using the automated system, according to the company.

A lawyer for a candidate can complete the other 20 percent, PassRight said.

PassRight’s process connects applicants with a talent agency that sponsors qualified workers and can place them in companies, according to the startup.

A vocal critic of the H-1B program, U.C. Davis computer science professor Norm Matloff, said he strongly supports the O-1 but it should be awarded only to “the truly outstanding talents.”

PassRight, he said, may be “over-promising.”