The Republican Bill introduced by Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which was initiated to provide permanent resident visas for foreign graduates of U.S. universities with advanced degreesinscience, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields failed to pass at the U.S House of Representatives this Thursday.

For more details on this bill :

http://h1bwiki.com/green-card-update-55000-green-cards-for-foreign-graduates/

 But still there is a HOPE! Democrats introduced a similar bill with some changes to the republican bill.

The STEM jobs act was about providing 55,000 green cards annually to the foreign STEM professionals and eliminating the diversity visa lottery program. The lottery process currently distributes equal number of green cards to the foreigners from different countries, with low rates of immigration to the United States.

The final tally was 257 to 158. The bill was lacking a two-thirds majority voting to pass.

It was discussed in the house that the bill’s motive was not to increase the immigration levels. The bill would “create new jobs, increase competitiveness and spur innovation” as per Lamar Smith, sponsor of the Bill and (R) of Texas. He also added “the vote against this bill is vote against economic growth and job creation”.

The voting results then led to a long discussion and the bill became part of a debating conversation. The House of representatives do support the idea of providing permanent resident visas to the foreign graduates, but not at the cost of eliminating the diversity lottery program. They think the lottery program has a number of success stories in the past.

The democrats have now introduced a new bill, which is ought to retain the Diversity Visa Lottery Program and still set aside 55,000 permanent resident visas for the foreign STEM graduates. Well now, let’s all see where does this bill go to and how long it would take for us to hear some positive news on the permanent resident visa policy for the foreign STEM graduates.