*EPF307 10/04/00
Congress Sends High Tech Workers' Visa Bill to the President
(Clinton expected to sign bill) (740)
By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.S. Congress has sent legislation to President Clinton for his signature that will allow up to 195,000 highly skilled foreign workers into the United States annually on special H-1B visas over the next three years.

Clinton is expected to sign the bill into law shortly, but no specific date has been set, according to a White House spokesman October 4. The Clinton administration May 11 announced its support for increasing the number of high-tech workers permitted to enter the United States annually.

The measure, approved in the Senate October 3 by a 96 to 1 vote and in the House of Representatives on a voice vote that same day, increases the number of H-1B visas that can be issued annually by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for the next three years. The three-year work visas, carrying an application fee of $500, may be renewed once for an additional three years.

H-1B visa recipients are actively sought by U.S. businesses for hard-to-fill, high paying high technology positions. The median prospective annual wage reported by U.S. employers for all H-1B workers was $50,000, though half of the workers may earn between $40,000 and $65,000, according to an INS report.

Computer industry workers lead the list accounting for 54 percent of H-1B visa holders entering the United States through February 2000, followed by architects, engineers, and surveyors at 13.1 percent, administrators and managers at 8.3 percent, educators at 5.6 percent, and medical and health care professionals making up 4.1 percent, according to the INS.

Approximately 56 percent of all H-1B visa holders possess at least a bachelor's degree, 31 percent earned a master's degree, 8 percent with a doctorate, and more than 2 percent with a professional degree, the INS said.

However, the H-1B measure also includes a provision for fashion models deemed of "distinguished merit and ability," the INS says. And, fashion models accounted for median salaries of $130,000 as of February, the INS says, with a range from $100,000 to $221,000.

Nearly 43 percent of the H-1B visas granted through February were made to recipients from India, followed by China with 9.9 percent, Canada 3.9 percent, and the United Kingdom and Philippines each with 3.2 percent, the INS says. In total, applications for the visas have been received from more than 20 nations.

Under the H-1B visa program begun in the 1950s and expanded during the 1990s, the number of H-1B visas issued in fiscal year 2000, which ended September 30, was limited to 115,000 recipients. Without passage of new legislation, the ceiling on H-1B visas during the current fiscal year, which began October 1, would have dropped to 107,500, and to 65,000 in fiscal year 2002.

The new measure allows visa requests filed before September 1 to be counted toward 2000 so that 195,000 visas will be available for 2001. The measure allows an exemption for foreign workers employed by the government or nonprofit organizations, and those who recently received an advanced degree from a U.S. college.

Vice President Gore said October 3 that Congress "took an important step forward by providing temporary relief to high technology companies that are experiencing a shortage of skilled workers and increasing training opportunities for U.S. workers to meet those needs."

In other legislative business, the U.S. Senate has passed legislation that would provide needed credit availability to entrepreneurs in countries with little access to ready capital. The bill would authorize the president to provide grant assistance for programs to increase credit availability.

It targets half of the resources to programs that serve entrepreneurs living at the bottom 50 percent below the poverty line established by their host country. The program also authorizes credits to micro lending programs. The U.S. House passed its version in 1999, and now the two versions must be reconciled in a conference committee of the two chambers.

Finally, House and Senate conferees on the agriculture appropriations bill will resume negotiations October 4 in an effort to resolve differences over a provision to eliminate economic sanctions on Cuba for food, medicines, and medical equipment.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Website: http://usinfo.state.gov)
NNNN