Proposal to exempt foreign students from H1-B limit

There is a proposal that foreign students graduating from US universities be exempt from the visa limit.

With the US government having already reached its cap on H1-B visas, there is some hope for foreign students and professionals applying for visas to the US with a proposal that foreign students be exempt from the limit.

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Two Republicans, Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas, are trying to push through a proposal that foreign students graduating from master's or doctoral programmes at US universities be exempt from the visa limit as they are often recruited by US businesses and could end up working for global competitors if H1-B visas are unavailable.

The US Chamber of Commerce too has urged Congress to "revise" the cap on H1-B visas for the rest of the fiscal year to "ensure American business has access to the talent it needs" and enact an exemption for foreign students.

The US reached the self-imposed cap on H1-B visas on Oct 1 - the first day of the US fiscal year - for the entire year.

"This should tell members of Congress that an adjustment must be made," Chamber Vice President for Labour, Immigration and Employee Benefits Randel Johnson, said in a statement.

The H1-B visa is required for all foreign-born, non-immigrant workers employed temporarily in the US in certain jobs. The visas, good for up to six years, are granted to foreign workers, mostly from India, in professions such as architecture, engineering, medicine and computer programming.

Johnson said: "The ability to obtain visas for highly educated foreign nationals is crucial to US competitiveness and helps keep jobs in America."

"It is unthinkable that Congress would hamstring employers from having access to these needed workers for an entire year."

Government officials have already refused to even consider H-1B petitions received after Oct 1.

American businesses were split over the impact of the cap, with some saying that it would protect jobs for American workers and others saying it would result in a loss of highly educated foreign-born workers.

Under the H-1B visa, US employers are expected to pay foreign professionals the prevailing wage and also comply with the guideline that no qualified US workers are being passed over.

However, the visa programme got bogged down in controversy after labour unions contended that it attracted cheaper foreign labour for American jobs.

In a counter argument, businesses that use the programme say they cannot find enough Americans with the necessary maths, science and engineering skills.

Election year politics and a sensitivity about exporting American jobs overseas has thwarted Congress from raising the cap.

It last raised the cap in 2000, when the country was enjoying an information technology and dotcom boom. The H1-B worker limit rose to 195,000, but it fell back to 65,000 in 2003.

Congress set the visa cap at 65,000 for the 2005 fiscal year. The number included 58,200 workers who petitioned for visas on Oct 1 and 6,800 visas earmarked for Chile and Singapore in "free trade" agreements.

This is the seventh time since 1997 that the H-1B cap has been reached before the end of the fiscal year, although the instantaneous achievement of

the cap with the start of the new year is an unwelcome record.

Randel Johnson further said: "Congressional limits on H-1B visas are set without regard to the economic or competitiveness needs of our country."

"While artificial caps are always troublesome, they should not stand in the way of the ability of US employers to hire foreign nationals with graduate degrees from American universities."

He said with FY 2005 only days old, US Citizenship and Immigration Services has already received enough petitions to account for all 65,000 H-1B visas allocated for the year.

Theresa Brown, director of immigration policy for the US Chamber of Commerce said in a statement that a cap never reflects anything in our economy.

"It's always been a political number and companies have hit the cap several times over the year. We've got to have a better system than that," Brown said.