The Hindu Business Line : Immigration reform package on US Senate floor next week

The cap fits
If the cap has not been exhausted during the fiscal year, it would remain constant.
For employment based (EB) immigrant visas, the Bill provides for an increase in the EB immigrant cap from 140,000 to 290,000

New Delhi , March 25

The coming week promises to be an action-packed one for the Indian IT industry, with the US Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled to resume consideration of the comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes provision for a market-based H-1B cap with a visa floor of 1,15,000 against the current annual cap of 65,000.

While the Senate Judiciary Committee is reconvening to continue the consideration of the immigration reform bill, the Senate Majority Leader, Mr Bill Frist, has stated that he wants the full Senate to consider comprehensive immigration reform next week. To that end, he introduced his own immigration Bill, S. 2454 Securing America's Borders Act, that includes the H-1B and employment based green card relief as well as security and enforcement provisions (including employment verification).

These provisions are identical or nearly identical to those in Chairman Specter's Bill in Senate Judiciary Committee. "This will be the bill considered by the Senate if the Committee fails to pass a measure. However, if the Senate Judiciary Committee finishes its work, Senator Frist has said that he will allow the Committee's Bill to be substituted for his when the Senate floor debate begins," Mr Jeff Lande, senior Vice-President of Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), told Business Line from the US.

The Bill - which proposes to open the country's doors to highly skilled immigrants for science, math, technology and engineering jobs - includes a provision for increasing the visa floor by 20 per cent of the base, in case the cap has been exhausted in the preceding fiscal year.

If the cap has not been exhausted during the fiscal year, it would remain constant. For employment based (EB) immigrant visas, the Bill provides for an increase in the EB immigrant cap from 140,000 to 290,000 along with unused visas from the previous fiscal year, unused visas from fiscal years 2001 through fiscal years 2005 and any unused visas after fiscal year 2005. It also proposes to limit the EB-3 preference category to skilled and professional workers under the bill, and higher annual allotment at 1,01,500 of the worldwide cap up from 30,000.

It may be recalled that given the high demand for skilled temporary workers in the US, the existing 65,000 H-1B visa cap was reached even before the start of the Federal Government's fiscal year 2006 (which began on October 1, 2005), prompting organisations such as ITAA to demand a significant increase in the number of visas for the current and future years.