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The IT worker shortage in the United States has forced many companies to look overseas for IT talent. And even with the U.S. economic downturn, overseas recruiting is likely to continue.

Relativity Technologies has hired several IT staffers from the former Soviet Union and from other parts of Europe where IT jobs are few and far between and typically don't pay as well. "We found a gold mine of talented, sophisticated technologists we couldn't readily hire here in the United States," says Vivek Wadhwa, CEO and founder of Relativity.

And it's not just because U.S. talent costs too much. The kind of programming Relativity needs involves some of the highest levels of mathematical and statistical expertise, which Wadhwa says is difficult to find. And for Relativity's Russian recruits, most of whom are now living and working in the United States, it's all about better opportunities here.

One of the Russians Relativity hired was found by Wadhwa's son, Vineet, who met the programmer in a chat room. Nikita Sarychev, who has been employed by Relativity for 18 months as a programmer, had written a few programs for his Palm Pilot, and Wadhwa's son asked in an online chat room for help downloading some Palm Pilot software. "Turns out Vineet was happy with my work and asked if I would be interested in coming to the United States," Sarychev says. "I was 21, still studying at Moscow State University, and didn't expect anything like this to happen to me."

Sarychev, who once spent his time developing office automation, user interfaces and database access for his Palm Pilot, now works on challenging C language parses for Relativity's RescueWare software, a data-mining and transformation tool used to migrate business processes and work flows from legacy systems to e-business applications.

There's a catch with overseas hires like Sarychev, however: The hiring process takes several weeks and can cost as much as $3,000 in fees and legal expenses for an employment visa. Sarychev started at Relativity in December 1999 and has a three-year contract with the option to renew for three more years. He plans to stay in the United States and will apply for his green card before the visas run out. "I miss my parents, but I can always bring them here for visits," he says.

Surprisingly, there are no U.S. government restrictions when it comes to hiring programmers from the former Soviet Union. As a matter of fact, Relativity boasts a number of ex-KGB operatives on its employment roster. "The U.S. government is happy we have scooped up some of these talented folks to put their knowledge to work here in the United States," rather than in some "less democratic" country, Wadhwa says.