Congress Is Back And Here Comes Another Round Of H-1B LegislationCongress Is Back And Here Comes Another Round Of H-1B Legislation

With a new session of Congress comes a new round of immigration reform bills. The first out includes a familiar provision: to raise the H-1B visa cap.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., last week introduced the Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act. It includes a proposal to increase the annual cap on H-1B visas--the visas most often used to bring in foreign tech pros--from 65,000 to 115,000. The acronym-grasping act, known as Strive, proposes upping the limit to 180,000 in subsequent years if the 115,000 cap is reached during a given fiscal year. The bill also proposes exempting from the cap certain individuals who have earned an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering, or math at U.S. schools.

In each of the last several years, the H-1B cap was reached months before the new fiscal year even began. On April 1, the federal government will begin accepting H-1B petitions for fiscal 2008, which begins on Oct. 1. Once again, we'll be watching to see how fast the visas are snapped up.