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United States boosts H-1B visa quota |
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May 26, 2006 at 10:01 AM |
 The United States Senate has passed legislation to reform the immigration laws that limit the number of skilled workers allowed to start work in the country each year. The annual cap on H-1B visas has now been raised from 65,000 to 115,000 but reforms have now allowed for this to be raised in accordance with demand in the future.
The bill also exempts from the H-1B cap people with a masters or PhD degree in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and exempts from the green card cap those workers with masters and PhD STEM degrees who have worked in the U.S. for at least three years.
"Highly skilled scientists and engineers are the key to retaining U.S. leadership in technology," stated George Scalise President of SIA. "Today we are not producing enough native-born engineers and scientists to meet the needs of our high-tech sector. The H-1B and green card reform legislation passed by the Senate today would help technology companies in their efforts to hire and retain the talented workers who are essential to remaining competitive."
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