Gates: Tech Needs More Immigrant Visas
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Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called on the U.S. Congress to raise the cap on skilled-worker visas, saying the county's economic future was at stake.
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Company plans to open a software development center later this year in Vancouver, partly because of immigration issue.
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Microsoft boss Bill Gates tells the eletronics industry that more technologies should be working together.
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In response to pressure from high-tech businesses and industry groups, Congress this weekend approved an increase in the number of H-1B visas by 20,000 but limited it to specially qualified students.
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Microsoft boss Bill Gates tells the electronics industry that more technologies should be working together.
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Even as he moves to part time, Microsoft chairman will continue pursuit of such technologies as tablet computing, speech recognition. Everything will be a computer, Gates says
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Microsoft chairman urges fixes to immigration law, better math and science education, and more research spending.
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Congress is letting employers hire 20,000 more foreign high-tech workers under a special visa program after businesses reached the annual ceiling on the first day of the government's fiscal year.
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BERKELEY, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- The computing problems to be solved in the next two decades will be more exciting than those that already have been solved, according to Microsoft&#39;s Bill Gates.
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Three major technology trade groups today urged the U.S. Senate to resurrect an immigration reform bill that would expand a controversial skilled-worker visa program.
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A key question remains: How many highly skilled immigrants does it take to fill America's needs?
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A U.S. congressman tells the Tech Industry Summit that Congress could pass an immigration reform bill by July.
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Microsoft said it will open a software development center in Canada this fall, partly to help it recruit and then retain foreign workers who are affected by U.S. immigration laws.
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The United States has nothing to fear from rapidly growing technology markets in China and India, Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corp.
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The cap on H-1B visas granted to foreign workers, set at 65,000 for the fiscal year that began Friday, has already been reached, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
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(InfoWorld) - Two IT trade groups, as well as Microsoft, expressed disappointment after the U.S. Senate failed to move ahead with a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would include a higher annual cap on visas for highly skilled workers. In a vote Thursday, the Senate failed to cut off debate on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act and move the bill forward for a vote. The bill, which critics say provides amnesty to illegal aliens living in the United States, also would have expanded exemptions to the cap on the controversial H-1B visa program, a move supported by many tech vendors. The bill would increase the annual H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000 and exempt all foreign students who have earned a master's degree or higher from a U.S. university from the annual cap. Right now, there's a 20,000 annual limit on exemptions for students with master's degree and higher. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), a trade group, called on the U.S. Congress to move ahead with legislation addressing only high-skilled visas, including H-1Bs and EB "green card" visas, not other immigration issues. The ITAA was "tremendously disappointed" by the Senate's failure to move the bill forward, ITAA president and CEO Phil Bond said in a statement. "Our own immigration system is restricting America's ability to compete, to grow, and to prosper," Bond said. "Congress must find a way to remove this chokehold." The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) said it was "profoundly disappointed" in the Senate's action. Without the immigration bill, the U.S. "high-tech industry will be challenged to find the skilled workers it needs and therefore put at a significant disadvantage to its global competitors," SIIA President Ken Wasch said in a statement. CompaniesÂ such asÂ Microsoft will be hurt by the failure to pass the bill, said Pamela Passman, the company's vice president for global corporate affairs. Comprehensive immigration reform is "desperately needed," she said in a statement. U.S.-based tech worker groups such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA (IEEE-USA) have opposed a higher H-1B cap, arguing that companies use the program to hire foreign workers for less money than unemployed U.S. workers would receive. This month, a video surfaced on the Internet showingÂ lawyers talking about how to cheat the skilled-worker visa system.
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Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said today he feels "deep anxiety" over the ability of the U.S. to compete globally, and said the country is risking its technology leadership because of failures in its education system and immigration policies and inadequate research spending.