Senate Bill Proposes 55,000 Additional Visas for STEM Graduates

New legislation authored by Senator John Cornyn, senior Republican on the Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security Subcommittee, would create 55,000 additional visas allocable to individuals who have earned a master’s or doctoral degree from a qualifying U.S. research institution. The bill aims to increase the global competiveness of American technology companies, who are short on talent with respect to high-tech workers such as engineers, mathematicians, and scientists. The bill has received considerable support from universities and high-tech industries in Senator Cornyn’s home state of Texas.

Importantly, the proposed legislation does not seek to increase the overall number of visas allocated to foreign nationals. Rather, it seeks to eliminate 55,000 diversity visas currently allocated to individuals from countries with low rates of migration to the United States. In place of the diversity visas, the narrowly written bill proposes to allocate 55,000 immigrant visas for eligible science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates (Master’s and Ph.D.) of qualifying U.S. research institutions who have job offers in related fields.

While it is unclear whether conservative Republicans will support the bill, Democrats, who currently make up the Senate majority, will likely oppose the legislation.

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