Final Action Nears On Increase In Quota 01 Skilled Immigrants

Nation's Business, Nov 1, 1998 by David Warner

Employers who have had difficulty finding highly skilled workers in the tight U.S. labor market will he able to look overseas for such employees now that Congress has passed legislation to increase the number of visas for highly skilled immigrants.

The House voted 288-133 in late September to raise the cap on H- 1B visas, which allow foreign specialty-occupation workers into the country for up to six years. The Senate approved a similar measure in mid-May. That's when the annual allotment of 65,000 H-1B visas was exhausted for fiscal 1998, which ended Sept. 30.

The House bill would increase H-1B visas to 115,000 for fiscal 1999 and fiscal 2000; the cap would be 107,500 for fiscal 2001 and thereafter would revert to 65,000 a year. Senators were expected to accede to the House measure and send it to President Clinton before Congress adjourned in early October. Clinton had said he would sign the legislation into law.