Washington: The US Congress has passed a reforms bill, which exempts 20,000 foreign students, who pass out of universities in the country with Masters or doctorate degrees, from the annual cap on 65,000 H-1B visas given to foreigners seeking work in America.

The move would benefit several thousand students, including from India, who failed to figure on the list of 65,000 H-1B visas issued this year.

The legislation was sponsored yesterday (Nov 22, 2004) by Senator Saxby Chambliss and co-sponsored by Senator Lamar Alexander, both Republicans.

The reforms bill exempt up to 20,000 Masters and Ph-D graduates of US universities from the annual 65,000 H-1B cap.

"These workers comprise best of the best among the highly skilled professionals that are critical to US companies," Chambliss said.

"The bill ensures we build our competitive strength and keep jobs here in the US," he said.

The H-1B legislation proposes to collect an increased fee of $ 1,500 from each applicant to fund education and training programmes for US workers. It also adds $ 500 anti-fraud fee to every visa application to protect against inappropriate uses of the visa programme.

It seeks the companies to attest that the H-1B worker will not displace a US worker. The companies must pay foreign workers an equivalent salary to their US counterparts.

The legislation also closes "loopholes" in the L-1 visa programme.

"Some firms use the L-1 visa to act as international job shops, bringing in foreign workers essentially for their labour and outsourcing those workers to third-party companies.

As a result, some US workers are being displaced by foreign workers," Chambliss said.

"While this legislation does not harm the legitimate use of the L-1 visa by most U.S. companies, the bill will stop firms from circumventing the original intent of the visa," he said.

It now requires that any specialised employee who is petitioning for an L-1 visa be located at an off-site workplace to be controlled and supervised by the petitioning company.

It also mandates the Department of Homeland Security to provide statistics about L-1 workers in order to discourage fraudulent usage of visas.