Crossing borders: local companies are looking abroad for highly skilled workers.

• Author: Kinder, Peri

What would persuade you to leave your home and family to travel halfway around the world to work at a tech company in Utah? For Indian immigrant Arnab Mitra, the answer was having the opportunity to live and work in the United States.

Mitra is one of the thousands of foreign workers in Utah brought to the state through the H-1B visa program. The visa allows for people trained in specialty occupations, such as engineering or computer programming, to be sponsored by an employer so they can live and work in the United States for a three-year time period, with the possibility of a one-time extension for an additional three years.

After working as an employee of Infosys, an Indian software engineering firm, Mitra, now 32, left his home in India in 2007 to come to America. His bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, earned at India's Visvesvaraya Technological University, qualified him to enter the H-1B program.

Initially, Mitra worked in Minneapolis before moving to Utah to work for Overstock.com, where he acquired his green card for permanent residency. Now he's a senior software engineer at the business management platform creator Domo.

Mitra married a Utah resident in 2012, but hasn't made up his mind about becoming a U.S. citizen because India doesn't allow dual citizenship, and he would have to give up his native residency.

"The hardest thing to adjust to is being away from your family," Mitra says. "My parents still live in India. I've traveled back to see them occasionally, but not as often as I'd like. But I'm in a career where it's great for me and my experience. It's a different work culture, in a good way. There's a better sense of work and life balance."

He also values the opportunity to raise his family in a culture where the quality of life is distinctly better. "There is less traffic and pollution here," he says. "And there are less people. Plus, Utah is definitely one of the prettiest places in the world."

A High Demand

Mitra is one of the lucky ones. When he traveled to the United States, H-1B visas weren't in high demand. Each year, a total of 65,000 special occupations visas are made available across the country. Applicants must have a bachelor's degree, or its equivalent, and must perform specific complex duties.

Additionally, 20,000 visas are awarded to professionals with master's degrees or higher. If all of the advanced degree petitions are not used, the remaining visas become part of the selection process for the regular 65,000 limit.

In 2009, it took roughly nine months to completely...