Republican STEM visa bill fails in US House
SEP 21, 2012
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.026366
Science : A Republican-backed bill to grant employment-based green cards to foreign-born graduates failed to pass yesterday in the House of Representatives. The bill proposes the creation of a new visa category for up to 55â000 foreign students who have earned graduate degrees in the US in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). At the same time, the proposal would eliminate a similar number of visas granted on a lottery system. Although Democrats also favor granting green cards to foreign STEM graduates, they are proposing a similar bill that would maintain the lottery system, thus increasing the total number of legal immigrants. Neither bill would grant visas to students in the biosciences, because US citizens already face stiff competition in that field.
© 2012 American Institute of Physics
