Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Increase Visas for Highly Skilled Immigrants

Contributed by Kim Tremblay

This month, four senators, two democrats and two republicans, have introduced Startup 2.0, a bill that encourages economic growth through development in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  The bill would increase the visa cap for highly skilled immigrant workers.  It would also create a new visa category for students who graduate with master’s degrees or doctorates in science, technology, mathematics, or engineering fields from universities in the United States.  The bill would create 50,000 of these visas, granting conditional permanent residency to recent graduates for five year, during which time they would have to remain actively engaged in their respective fields.  New visas would also be created for immigrant entrepreneurs who have an H-1Bs or are recent graduates in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.  These 75,000 visas would go to owners of business entities that employ at least two people at first, with the requirement rising to five people after three years.  The entrepreneurs would have to initially invest $100,000 in the business entity.  In addition, Startup 2.0 contains other provisions that would encourage research and development in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

To read more about Startup 2.0:

http://moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=startup-act