Wanna H-1B? Just breathe easy

NEW DELHI: Geeks can breathe easy. So can aspirants of L-1 and H-1B visas. All pending Bills in the US Congress - be it the infamous Mica Bill or the De Lauro and Johnson Bills which sought to make it tougher for foreign skilled workers to go to the US - will lapse, when Congress adjourns sine die on October 1.
This happy turn of events would suit Indians as they have been issued a large chunk of these visas.In 2003, of the total 32,416 L-1s issued, 10,447 or 33 per cent were issued to Indians. It''s a similar story in the case of H-1Bs. Of the 103, 584 H-1Bs issued in the fiscal year 2002, as many as 21,066 were issued to Indians.
The L-1 visa is a non-immigrant temporary worker visa issued to employees of a company on transfer to their offices in the US.
The general tenor of the nine Bills that remain pending in both Houses of Congress is to limit the number of L-1 visas, on which there are no numerical limits at present. It also reduces the scope of both temporary non-immigrant visas by placing greater strictures and controls. One Bill (Tancredo Bill) even sought to abolish the category of H-1B visas.
The term of a US Congress is for two years, with a new session beginning on January 3 of an odd numbered year. So on January 3, 2005, the 109th session of US Congress will be convened. This year the target date for adjournment of Congress sine die is October 1. At present the Congress is in recess for what is known as the summer district work period, a time when representatives and senators spend time in their districts.
''This period started on July 26 and ends on September 3, when Congress will reconvene. That would leave roughly a little more than three weeks time for these nine Bills to be passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
What this means for the nine Bills - which seek to change and limit the nature of H-1B and L-1 programmes - is that the sponsors of these Bills start the legislative process all over again. That is introducing the Bill afresh, which will be referred to the respective subcommittee.