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The following is excerpt from an Action Alert on NumbersUS
A.com
Background on SKIL Act
Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) introduced the SKIL Act (H.R. 5744) in the House. The Senate version is S. 2691. The SKIL Act would:
- Increase the annual H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000 in the first fiscal year after enactment.
- Further increase the cap by 20 percent in any fiscal year following a year in which employers used all available visas.
- Exempts from the annual cap on H-1B visas aliens: who work at a nonprofit organization; who hold a graduate degree from an institution of higher education in a foreign country (up to 2
0,000 exempted per year); who have earned an advanced degree from a U.S. institution of higher education; or who have been awarded medical specialty certification based on post-doctoral training and experience in the United States.
- Increases by 150,000 the annual worldwide level of employment-based (EB) immigrants and
- Exempts the spouses and minor children of EB immigrants, along with certain other aliens, from that cap.
- Facilitates a path to permanent residency and employment for L-1 visa holders by requiring DHS to extend the authorized stay of an L-1 nonimmigrant who has an application for LPR statu
s pending.
- Expands eligibility for F student visas to include any student qualified to pursue a full course of study in mathematics, engineering, technology, or the sciences leading to a bachelor
's or graduate degree.
The result of the SKIL Act would be to further depress the wages of Americans working in high-tech and scientific fields and to cause additional job displacement for those wor
kers.
More H-1B Background
The annual cap on H-1B visas returned to 65,000 on October 1, 2003, after being increased to as high as 195,000 the year before.
As a result of heavy lobbying by high-tech companies and cheap labor lobbyists, in the fall of 2004, Congress created another H-1B visa expansion with an annual cap of 20,000
to accommodate foreign nationals attaining graduate degrees from U.S. universities.
These are an extra 20,000 H-1B visas to be granted above the 65,000 cap for workers with U.S.-earned graduate degrees.
These H-1B visas are still available for workers that are not subjected to the annual cap, such as those who would be employed at institutions of higher education, nonprofit r
esearch organizations, or governmental research organizations.
Thanks to Mark Hudson for brining this article to our attention
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