US degree may become passport to green card

Washington: To attract the world’s “best and the brightest”, a group of top Democratic senators on Friday proposed immediate green cards for foreigners with advanced degrees from American institutes who also have job offers. This is good news for India which sends a large number of students to the US.
At the same time, they have proposed tightening of rules for H-1B and L1 visas, popular among Indian technology professionals.
The proposals being put forward by a coalition of powerful Democratic Senators are aimed at fixing the country’s broken immigration system.
The proposals “will reform America’s high-skilled immigration system to permanently attract the world’s best and brightest while preventing the loss of American jobs to temporary foreign labour contractors,” said a report drawn by senators Charles E Schumer, Harry Reid and Bob Menendez. At the moment, high-skilled workers are prevented from migrating to the US due to restrictive caps on their entry, says the 26-page conceptual proposal for immigration reform.
“In order to accomplish this goal, a Green Card (permanent residency) will be immediately available to foreign students with an advanced degree from a US institution of higher education in a field of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, and who possess an offer of employment from a US employer in a field related to their degree,” it says. India sends the maximum number of students for higher studies to the US in the field of science, mathematics, engineering and technology and is therefore expected to benefit the most.
Under the current system, Indians have to wait for several years to get the coveted Green Card. “To address the fact that workers from some countries face unreasonably long backlogs, this proposal eliminates the per-country employment immigration caps,” the proposal said. PTI
Class Act
A group of Democrats in the US have proposed immediate visas for students with advanced degrees from American universities who also have job offers
If approved, India would benefit the most since it sends the highest number of students to the US
The senators argue that the proposal would ‘attract the world’s best and the brightest’

Source – Times of India dated 2nd May 2010