An influential American senator has vowed to raise the H1B visa threshold in a bid to encourage more of the brightest and best to work in the USA.

Commerce secretary Carlos Guttierrez believes America should open its doors to more talented students from overseas, in order to become more economically competitive.

He insists the H1B cap should rise considerably to reflect the proliferating pool of talent in the world’s most populous countries, China and India.

Republic senator Orin Hatch has also thrown his weight behind a rise in the H1B visa limit this week as the Senate continued to debate ways in which immigration laws could be used to persuade the greatest foreign talent to work in the USA.

“We have students come over from the world,” Mr Guttierrez told the Judiciary Committee that is presiding over the proposed comprehensive immigration reform.

“They get the best education money can buy and then they have to go back home; they can’t stay here and apply their skills. We believe that we should be able to do better than that in order to serve our competitiveness needs as a nation.”

China is estimated to train over 300,000 engineers each year, compared to the 60,000 that qualify to work in the USA annually.