Leaders in the American IT industry are campaigning for a higher cap on the number of skilled workers awarded H1B visas to live and work in the USA.

The visas permit highly-qualified American-trained foreigners to fill specialised roles, particularly in technical fields such as computing, for up to six years.

At present, there are 65,000 spaces for such specialists, but pressure from lobby groups is mounting and international desire to work in the USA is sky-high. An immigration reform is expected to lift this ceiling to at least 115,000 next year and higher again the following year.

An overseas candidate must have achieved a masters’ qualification, equivalent, or higher, at an American institution, in order to be eligible for an H1B visa to work in the USA.

A vociferous advocate of the scheme over the past two years, Microsoft founder Bill Gates believes more talented technology students should be given employment opportunities on American soil.

“It is kind of ironic to have someone graduate from Stanford Computer Science Department and there’s not enough H1B visas, so they have to go back to India,” he said in a recent interview with the Washington Post’s David Broder, reports BusinessJournalism.org.

Contributed by J.Bevan