Visas

High-tech firms and other businesses are urging Congress to increase the number of visas available for skilled foreign workers after immigration officials announced this week that the 65,000 visa cap was reached within hours. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received more than 150,000 H-1B petitions Monday, the first day companies could submit applications for potential workers. Applications received Tuesday have not been tallied.

Snoop Dogg has been refused entry into Australia because of his criminal record, the immigration minister said Thursday. The rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, was due to fly into Sydney this week to co-host the MTV Australia Video Music Awards. Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said Snoop Dogg's visa was canceled because he had failed to pass the country's strict character test, which takes criminal convictions into account. He's also currently on bail in a weapon possession case.

Re "Immigrants have families too," Opinion, May 19 Bill Ong Hing's points are well taken, but he seems to have forgotten that immigration to a foreign country is entirely voluntary. Your siblings and adult children are that important to you? Stay with them, don't come here. He states that these family members who do come to the U.S. immediately go to work in jobs in which there will be shortages soon. If that is the case, they should apply for their own visas. Oh yeah, and those small businesses these kinship immigrants open?

More Iraqi and Afghan interpreters, frequently in danger in their home countries because of their association with Americans, would get U.S. visas under legislation passed in the House on Tuesday. The bill, approved 412 to 8, would increase to 500 the number of special immigrant visas granted annually to interpreters. A 2006 defense bill set at 50 the annual cap on visas for interpreters who had worked for the U.S. military for a year.

From Ukraine to Ecuador, scores of young maids and dishwashers are having trouble getting U.S. visas this spring -- and that means trouble in Yosemite Valley. "I've been making beds and scrubbing showers," said Tracy Rogge, vice president of operations for park concessionaire Delaware North Cos. The chief operating officer "cleaned toilets and bagged groceries. Our director of finance was making burgers. This really caught us off-guard."

Re "Short staffs are a bear for parks," May 27 The trouble in Yosemite Valley referred to in this article is not the lack of visas for people "from Ukraine to Ecuador." It is in Delaware North Co.'s cutting costs by hiring people who need visas. Before the company took over the concession in Yosemite Valley, many local people worked in the park and would no doubt do it again if they were offered decent compensation, as they used to be. Delaware North has turned the concession that it is supposed to run for the public into its own moneymaking machine.

The decision by U.S. immigration officials to reverse policy and open a monthlong filing window for work-based green card applicants drew elation this week from those aiming to fill vacancies in healthcare, high tech and other industries facing labor shortages. "This is the best thing that's ever happened to me," said Gopinath Gopalsamy, a 33-year-old software engineer who came to Los Angeles from India in 2000 with a temporary work visa.

To many labor unions and high-tech workers, the Indian giant Tata Consultancy Services is a serious threat -- a company that has helped move U.S. jobs to India while sending thousands of foreign workers on temporary visas to the United States. So when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) came to this struggling city to announce some good news, her choice of partners was something of a surprise.

British pop star Lily Allen was detained at Los Angeles International Airport for five hours over the weekend and her work visa was revoked because of a legal entanglement back home, according to the BBC. The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter was en route to Las Vegas for a news conference announcing nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards. Allen, 22, who scored the hits "Smile" and "LDN," is nominated for the best new artist award.

Syria is imposing strict visa requirements on Iraqis, cutting the only accessible escape route for thousands of refugees, officials said Monday. A decree that takes effect Sept. 10 bars Iraqi passport holders from entering Syria except for businessmen and academics, a small minority of the 3,000 to 5,000 refugees who cross the border every day. Jordan, the other main destination of Iraqi refugees, imposed visa requirements about two years ago. "Syria has already received more than 1.