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Clinton signs law for more high-tech work visas: Reuters

United States President Bill Clinton on Tuesday signed a legislation increasing visas for skilled foreign workers, handing a victory to high-tech companies desperate for computer-savvy employees.

Overwhelmingly approved by Congress earlier this month, the new law will increase H-1B temporary visas for high-tech workers from India and other countries and double the fee charged for employers using the programme.

Despite strong support, the legislation got caught up in election year politics and efforts to woo Hispanic voters. But technology companies, facing a severe shortage of applicants with the skills they need, made passage of the H-1B legislation a top priority and put pressure on lawmakers to act.

"My administration has made it clear that any increase in H-1B visas should be temporary and limited, that the fee charged to employers using the programme should be increased significantly and that the majority of the funds generated by the fee must go to the Department of Labour to fund training for US workers seeking skills for these jobs," Clinton said in a statement.

"This legislation does those things."

The White House expressed disappointment that the bill did not include broader immigration amendments to grant amnesty to some long-term illegal aliens and to address the legal status of immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti and Liberia.

The new law will increase visas for highly skilled workers to 195,000 per year for three years.

Without the increase, the visas annually under current law would fall to 65,000 from the 115,000 that were available in 2000, a figure reached in March.

The legislation will allow visa requests filed before September 1 to be counted toward 2000 so that 195,000 visas will be available for fiscal 2001, which began on October 1.

It would also provide more money, to be funded by higher visa application fees, to help with job training and education programmes to improve skills of American workers.

Under the new law, the fee charged to employers using the H-1B programme will increase from $500 to $1,000 per visa. In fiscal 2001, this will generate an estimated $170 million in additional funds, the White House said.

Democratic efforts to add broader immigration measures to the visa bill were thwarted in the Senate by Republicans, who accused the minority party of playing election year politics with the issue.

Clinton urged Republicans to rethink their opposition.

"We need to meet the needs of the high-tech industry by increasing visas for temporary high-tech workers. But we also must ensure fairness for immigrants who have been in this country for years, working hard and paying taxes," Clinton said.

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