Tech firms seek more green cards, visas

WASHINGTON, June 25 (UPI) -- Executives of high-tech firms are trying, unsuccessfully observers say, to reshape the U.S. Senate immigration bill to meet their needs for foreign workers.

The Senate plans to resume working this week on a bill that would expand the number of work visas for skilled professionals. But high-tech companies say the proposed increase isn't enough, The New York Times said Monday.

Companies want to hire well-educated, foreign-born professionals who, they say, can help ensure success in a global economy, the Times reported. To hire them, companies seek permanent-residence visas -- green cards -- and H-1B visas, which are temporary work visas for people with university degrees or the equivalent to fill jobs in specialty occupations.

"High-tech companies are very organized. When Bill Gates advocates more H-1B visas and green cards for tech workers, everyone listens," said Stephen W. Yale-Loehr, co-author of an immigration law treatise. "But that supposed influence has not translated into legislative results."

Yale-Loehr, a Cornell Law School teacher, said companies have lobbied unsuccessfully for more temporary work visas since 2003. These days, it's tougher to push legislation through Congress and anti-immigrant groups are better organized.