The U.S. President Barack Obama addresses regarding Immigration Reform once again, at the State of the Union Speech which was held this Tuesday, February 12^th 2013. His talk focused on the high-skilled immigrants who work in the United States. Mr. President mentioned about the advantages of attracting high-skilled engineers and entrepreneurs to the United States and added that they would ultimately help create jobs and lead to economic growth.

Obama mentioned the bipartisan groups in both the chambers of congress have been working diligently to draft an immigration reform bill. Mr. President called on Congress to send him a comprehensive immigration reform bill within the next few months.

President Obama quoted “Now let’s get this done. Send me a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the next few months, and I will sign it right away”

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DISCUSSION ON H-1B VISAS

The discussion also included regarding the backlog of visas, which has been holding the legal immigrants with advanced degrees in engineering, from obtaining the visas to remain in the United States. Also, that the H-1B visas exceeding the cap limit was discussed about.

CUT THE WAITING PERIODS

Mr. Obama explains Immigration Reform means fixing the legal immigration system. And saying this, he did mention about the concern, a legal immigrant currently face today due to the long wait period for obtaining permanent residency. This needs to also be addressed in this immigration reform bill, he added.

PER COUNTRY RESTRICTION ON GREEN CARDS

Mr. President also spoke about the 7 percent restriction per country; of the 140,000 employment-based green cards issued annually and mentioned that this issue is a major concern for populous countries like India and China. He added that those limits were not a problem before, but has now fallen short of demand due to the number of immigrants in the United States increased tremendously.

REGARDING STEM JOB ACT WHICH FAILED LAST YEAR

House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office after Obama’s speech spoke about the STEM Job Act which failed late last year in the lower chamber, which would have created 55,000 green card visas to allot permanent residency to immigrants with advanced degrees. He mentioned Mr. President did oppose the bill last year, but later the Democrats as well as Mr. President responded this bill would have cut an equal number of visas from the visa lottery program and henceforth was not taken forward.

Immigration Reform would be a key to create a major impact on the U.S. Economy and this is definitely going to happen sometime in the next few months as per Mr. President, Barack Obama.