LOS ANGELES, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. technology firms are hoping President George W. Bush's call for more visas for skilled foreign workers will help them fill key positions.
In a speech earlier this month, the president called on Congress to be "realistic" and "reasonable" and expand the quota of H-1B visas, which are used to bring in skilled workers on a temporary basis, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The allotment of H-1Bs for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1 was filled by August, and companies have to wait until April to apply for next year's slots. The United States agreed this year to give 20,000 additional visas to foreign graduates of U.S. master's and Ph.D. programs, but those slots were filled last month.
Companies say too few U.S. citizens are getting upper-level degrees in math and sciences. In electrical engineering, for example, 56 percent of master's and 66 percent of the Ph.D. graduates of U.S. programs in 2004 were foreign students, the newspaper said.
