Attention International Students: STEM Education Bill Introduced in Congress

On 5 October, Congressman Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) introduced a bill into Congress that will change the process international students use to become American citizens.  The bill will reduce the time between students earning their advanced degrees and when they can get a green card from between five and ten years to less than one.

The bill, H.R. 3146, applies to all international students who earn a Masters or Ph.D. from an American University in a STEM field and who have a job offer in the United States.  These students would be exempted from the employment-based immigrant (EB) visa cap.  EB visas are the most common way international students become citizens if they don’t already have family within the United States.

Because there are so few EB visas relative to demand, eligible students must currently wait up to ten years for one to become available. By making EB visas available sooner, H.R. 3146 would reduce the need for H-1B visas and minimize the damage done by them to the engineering profession.

To learn more, please read the article in the November issue of IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer.