The Hindu Business Line : 2006 H-1B visa cap reached; call for raising limit

THE US Citizenship and Immigration Service has said it has already received enough H1-B petitions to reach the Financial Year 2006 visa cap of 65,000.

H-1B visas allow employers to have access to highly educated foreign professionals who have experience in specialised areas and who have at least a bachelor's degree or the equivalent. The H-1B visa programme allows American companies and universities to employ foreign scientists, engineers and programmers in the US.

Under current law the programme is capped at 65,000, down from 195,000 in financial year 2003. In November 2004, Congress created an exemption for 20,000 foreign nationals earning advanced degrees from US universities.

The cap for year 2005 was reached on October 1, 2004 - the first day of the Federal Government's new fiscal year. The announcement that the H-1B cap for 2006 has already been reached, goes to indicate the acceleration in the demand for highly educated foreign professionals.

Meanwhile, Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) has said that the Federal Government's announcement that it has already received enough H1-B petitions to reach the 2006 cap, underscored the need for a significant increase in the number of such visas allowed.

"The H1-B visa programme is important to US competitiveness in high technology. H1-B visa holders are foreign-born individuals with talent and expertise unavailable in local markets. We believe a significant increase is required to meet the need for specialised skills and keep companies - and as a result jobs for US workers - growing at a steady pace. If we want to be competitive on the world stage, we need to raise the H-1B cap. Maintaining a cap that is so low that it is met before the year even begins makes no sense; it only helps our foreign competitors," said the ITAA President, Mr Harris N. Miller.

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