Plan to Expand H1-B & Employment Visas Dropped

A Senate-passed measure toadd more visas for foreign workers in high-tech and specialty fields wasdropped from a budget bill that passed the House earlier this month, disappointinghigh-tech and manufacturing firms in search of skilled workers.

The Senate plan would haveallowed 30,000 more of the popular H1-B visas each year, and increased fees forthose visas to help trim the budget deficit. Congress capped the six-year H-1Bvisas at 65,000 per year in 2004, and that cap has already been reached for the2006 fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

The Senate language alsowould have allowed 90,000 more employment-based green cards that offerpermanent residency to skilled workers, and added fees for those.

Critics contend the visasgive foreigners high-level jobs that should go to American workers, and theplan was opposed by some House Republicans as a backdoor way to boost immigration.House and Senate negotiators left it out of the final version of a $39.7billion federal budget bill that passed the House 212-206 and was expected toget a Senate vote later in the day.

“This is very, verydisappointing,” said Sandy Boyd, a vice president at the NationalAssociation of Manufacturers. “What’s distressing about this, and what theSenate clearly understood, is there is a real global competition for this workand for these employees, and the question is not whether the work is going toget done, it’s where is the work going to get done. We’ve missed a realopportunity by not ensuring the work would be done here.”

Houseand Senate negotiators also dropped a plan to increase fees on anotherkind of visa, the L-1, which companies use to transfer workers theyalready employ in foreign countries in the U.S.

Source: Associated Press & San Jose Mercury News, Dec. 20, 2005
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