New Bill for Work Visas for STEM Graduates

The US Senator John Cornyn introduced a law to the Congress in order to boost the economical competitiveness of the United States.

This bill introduced by the US Senator is called the STAR Act of 2012. This bill would allocate 55,000 visas every year to foreign scholars from US universities provided that they hold a Master’s degree or Ph.D in science, engineering, technology and mathematics. These fields are the STEM fields. This would allow them to choose for double intent while entering the United States.

According to this bill the visas will be taken from the current Diversity Visa Lottery program. Through this, qualified individuals from the countries with low immigration rates to the United States, will be provided with opportunities.

This bill will also increase the number of visas which are issued to highly skilled workers in the STEM fields. This selection of highly skilled workers is considered to be of more importance for the US technology companies. Such companies always want to improve their approach towards international pools of laborers. They also wish to fill the vacant positions by skilled labor in America.

The US Senator is also confident that this STAR Act will strengthen American competitiveness. It will also provide a strong foundation for a long-run development. This bill is also likely to streamline the Green Card process for the economic growth of STEM.

There were also complaints from high-technology companies from Texas related to foreign graduates with degrees in mathematics and engineering. They had returned to their home countries in order to start up competing businesses, as they were not able to stay and work in the United States, legally.

Senator Cornyn also stated that the United States should also not take a back seat to no one in the world, in the worldwide competition for the world’s best and brightest minds in mathematics and science.

This STAR Act of 2012 has also received some promises of two-party support. That is because both nominees for the upcoming presidential elections have certain supporting policies which might attract foreign graduates related to STEM fields, to stay in the United States. Texas universities such as Texas A&M University, Rice University and Texas Tech University have supported the bill.

Certain Important proposals introduced by the bill include allotting 55,000 immigrant visas for the eligible STEM graduates. This bill would also allow dual intent for those individuals who are admitted in the US universities, to pursue a STEM degree. Individuals who graduate from an American research organization in a STEM field, will be provided with immigration visas under the EB-2 category. This new bill is also accepted by various educational institutions and employers.