On Tuesday, the federal government begins accepting visa applications for 65,000 skilled foreign workers. But much as it could use some extra help, Progress Software Corp. won’t be applying for any of these coveted H-1B visas.

Instead, the Massachusetts company is embracing a different visa program, called L-1, that lets businesses import workers who’ve already been hired at their overseas offices.

"It’s certainly easier than getting an H-1 visa," said Todd Tracy, the company’s director of talent planning and acquisition.

Despite the slowing economy, companies say it’s hard to find enough highly skilled workers. The H-1B program was designed to help businesses hire capable foreign workers, but demand for the 65,000 visas far exceeded supply in 2007, and the same is expected this year.

Many tech companies have embraced L-1 visas as an alternative. Companies can apply for the visas at any time of year, and there is no limit to the number that can be issued. The United States granted 53,000 L-1s in 2006, up 33 percent from the number granted in 2000.

But critics of U.S. immigration policy say some companies are misusing the L-1 program. "We have found and heard lots of stories recently of companies that are really kind of abusing it," said Bob Meltzer, chief executive of Visanow.com, a Chicago company that processes visa applications online.

Many of the leading recipients of L-1 visas are Indian companies such as Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Ltd., which specialize in providing foreign workers to U.S. companies. The Indian companies’ use of the visas is legal, but Meltzer thinks the L-1 program should be available only to U.S.-based firms.

"It wasn’t created to help the Indian companies," he said. "It was intended to support American companies and the American economy."

Some companies also abuse the L-1 system, according to Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild, which seeks to protect U.S. high-tech workers. While the H-1B program requires employers to pay foreign workers the prevailing U.S. wage for a particular job, L-1 has no such requirement. Thus an engineer brought in from, say, India, could be paid the same as in their home country, rather than the much higher pay U.S. engineers demand.

"There’s tens of thousands of foreign workers working in the U.S., and they continue to be paid in their foreign wages," Berry said.

Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Richard Durbin, D-Ill., have filed legislation to reform the L-1 and H-1B programs. Their bill would require companies to pay a prevailing wage to L-1 visa employees and would forbid the use of L-1 visas by outsourcing companies.

Meanwhile, some in Congress favor jacking up the number of H-1B visas. U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., recently introduced a bill to raise the H-1B visa quota from 65,000 to 130,000 a year. Meanwhile, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, filed legislation to raise the cap to 195,000.

Progress officials would welcome an increase.

"We don’t see any decrease in our employment needs at all," said Joe Andrews, vice president of human resources at the company, which makes programs to monitor and manage business computing activities.

But last year, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service shut down the H-1B application process the day after it began, having received 133,000 applications for the 65,000 slots. The agency ended up choosing successful applicants through a computer lottery. Many in the technology sector predict a similar rush this year. Faced with such daunting odds, Progress focused instead on L-1 visas.

"The unavailability of the H-1B visas has put us in a position where I don’t think it’s part of our overall strategy right now," Tracy said.

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc., a microchip manufacturing equipment maker in Gloucester, Mass., hasn’t entirely given up on H-1B visas. Company officials expect to apply for about three of them Tuesday.

But they’re also counting on an H-1B alternative: the O visa, a special program to help companies hire foreign workers with exceptional skills.

The program is sometimes used to enable foreign athletes to play for U.S. teams; Varian uses it to hire scientists and engineers.

"Because some of the people we want to hire are Ph.D.s and are outstanding in their field, we’re able to apply for an O visa," Varian human resources manager Bob Moore said.

O visas are far less controversial than other foreign-worker visas because so few are issued — fewer than 7,000 in 2006, with another 3,700 for workers who assist the exceptional employees.

Many tech companies say they’ll take their chances with the H-1B system.

RSA, the security division of EMC Corp., the giant data-storage company, will ask for about 10 visas.

"We expect to grow this year, and that means we need more people to do more things," RSA president Art Coviello said.

Coviello said he is especially eager to hire foreign recruits who have recently graduated from U.S. universities.

"It just seems a shame that we have so many people coming here to get an education … and we end up sending them home," he said.

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