while many finance chiefs complain about the shortage of talent, some are filling the gap by hiring foreign nationals.
cfo magazine reports alliant credit union has hired four in four years and pitney bowes has 16 foreign nationals on the company’s 515-member corporate finance team. they hail from china, india, bulgaria, france, and venezuela. most have master’s degrees in finance-related fields, and all carry h-1b visas
the strategy does more than just fill open slots — it adds diversity, experience and foreign language skills to the department.
despite the growing number of foreign nationals skilled in finance, hiring them can be both a challenge and a risk, thanks to the limited number of h-1b visas available. the united states awards 65,000 visas annually in the general category, through a computer-generated random-selection process. another 20,000 visas are reserved for foreign nationals who have advanced degrees from u.s. universities. demand for the visas is high: over the past two years corporate applicants have outnumbered visas roughly 2 to 1. the annual selection process is conducted in the spring, and quotas are typically filled within a few days.
more at cfo.com…
