Obama fighting Microsoft-backed visa reform

November 30, 2012

The Business Journals

Patrick Hoge

President Obama has surprised many by opposing an immigration reform bill backed by a host of major tech companies that would let U.S.-educated computer programmers and engineers remain in the country, CNET reports.

The White House announced Thursday that it wants more comprehensive immigration reform, and thus opposes the Republican-backed STEM Jobs Act of 2012, which would make up to 55,000 visas available to foreigners who earned a master's or doctoral degree in certain science or technology area from a U.S. university, CNET said.

It is not the first time that efforts to reform one area of immigration law with regard to technology companies have been stymied by demands that changes be tied to more global reforms affecting immigrants outiside of the tech sector.

The STEM bill has been supported by Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Qualcomm, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and IEEE-USA.

Immigration reform has also been supported by other Seattle-area tech companies, such as Amazon.com and Expedia Inc., which, along with Microsoft, make some of the highest numbers of requests for the temporary H-1B visas, given only to foreign nationals who are highly educated in specific fields.

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