H-1B backers seek White House help for foreign students

[OhioChick]

Frustrated by lack of H-1B cap increase, supporters call for student-visa work extension

March 27, 2008 (Computerworld) WASHINGTON — Stymied so far in their efforts to get Congress to allow more skilled foreign workers into the U.S., H-1B visa supporters are asking the Bush administration to extend the time that foreign graduates of U.S. universities can work on student visas from one year to 29 months.

The proposed extension is a stop-gap plan that wouldn't increase the federal government's cap on the number of H-1B visas that can be issued each year. But it would buy extra time for foreign students who graduate from college in the U.S. this year.

A foreign student needs a degree to qualify for an H-1B visa, but seniors who are graduating this spring won't have their degrees before next Tuesday — the day that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin accepting H-1B petitions for the government's 2009 fiscal year.

The USCIS may get more than enough applications for all of the available visas — 85,000 all told, including 20,000 set aside for people who hold advanced degrees from U.S. universities — on April 1 alone. That means upcoming graduates likely will have to wait until next year to apply. And if they don't succeed then in getting H-1B visas through the government's random lottery process, they could be forced to leave the U.S. under current student-visa rules.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9072718&intsrc=hm_list

[DainBramaged]

1. Give the jobs to American citizens who graduate, not those gaming the system

This smacks of so much bullshit. Work extensions? FOURTY FIVE THOUSAND PEOPLE APPLIED FOR 2500 JOBS AT KIA'S NEW TRAINING CENTER in Georgia and we're supposed to give these people an extension?

Go home.