With a new session of Congress comes a new round of immigration reform bills. The first out includes a familiar provision: to raise the H-1B visa cap.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., last week introduced the Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act. It includes a proposal to increase the annual cap on H-1B visas--the visas most often used to bring in foreign tech pros--from 65,000 to 115,000. The acronym-grasping act, known as Strive, proposes upping the limit to 180,000 in subsequent years if the 115,000 cap is reached during a given fiscal year. The bill also proposes exempting from the cap certain individuals who have earned an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering, or math at U.S. schools.
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Gutierrez and Flake try their hand at immigration reform | |
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In each of the last several years, the H-1B cap was reached months before the new fiscal year even began. On April 1, the federal government will begin accepting H-1B petitions for fiscal 2008, which begins on Oct. 1. Once again, we'll be watching to see how fast the visas are snapped up.