Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

House bill seeks to more than double H-1B visa cap

Immigration reform measure also would remove limits on advanced degree holders

March 22, 2007 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Legislation seeking to hike the federal government's annual cap on H-1B visas from the current limit of 65,000 to as many as 180,000 was introduced in the U.S. House today, in what likely will be the start of another push in Congress to allow more technology workers into the U.S.

The H-1B proposal, which is part of a wider immigration reform bill co-sponsored by Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), also would do more than raise the visa cap. The measure seeks to remove all limits on issuing visas to foreign nationals who have advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering or math from U.S. universities.

Advanced degree holders can already be issued visas on top of the regular H-1B cap, but the number of extra visas made available for them is limited to 20,000 in a single government fiscal year.

In addition, the legislation would exempt foreign workers with "extraordinary ability" in certain areas, including science and business, from some of the requirements for obtaining green cards that give them permanent residency status in the U.S. That provision is aimed at making it easier for such workers to obtain the cards.

Other bills related to the guest worker program may also be introduced in the House this year, and Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) have been working on an immigration reform bill of their own.

The Gutierrez-Flake bill is called the STRIVE Act of 2007, for Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy. If approved, it would increase the H-1B visa cap to 115,000 per fiscal year. And if that limit was reached, the bill would allow for automatic increases to as much as 180,000 visas based on market demand.

High-tech companies and trade groups have been pushing Congress to increase the H-1B cap for the past two years. Earlier this month, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, as the sole witness at a hearing on U.S. competitiveness, and called for an increase in the H-1B cap and an expedited green card process for highly skilled workers.

Compete America, a Washington-based group that includes IT vendors, trade associations and universities and is lobbying for an H-1B cap increase, today praised the visa-related provisions in the legislation introduced by Gutierrez and Flake.

Robert Hoffman, vice president of government and public affairs at Oracle Corp. and co-chairman of Compete America, said in a statement that the H-1B cap for fiscal 2008, which doesn't start until October, is likely to be reached next month. In light of that, "and with multiyear backlogs in all employment-based visa categories growing, it is imperative that meaningful reform occur this year," Hoffman said.



Jump to comments

H-1B

Additional Resources

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know
WHITE PAPER
Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.
Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009
WHITE PAPER
The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.
Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing
WHITE PAPER
Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.

What People Are Saying

White Papers & Webcasts

The Workday User Experience Video
Watch Workday's Creative Director, Scott Lietzke, discuss the business-centered design philosophy at Workday.

Business Process Framework Demo
Learn about Configurable Business Processes and Calculated Fields. Watch Now!

Manager Experience Demo
Go beyond self-service solutions to perform more effectively. Watch Now.


IT Jobs