Obama for streamlining H2B visa process

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Washington, September 6:: Driving home the point that he is for creating jobs in the US, Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama has favoured streamlining the process for the high-skilled H2B visas for Indians and other foreigners to make sure that employers were not "gaming" the system.

"For those who don't know, the H2B visa programme is the programme whereby people with specialised skills, foreign nationals with specialised skills, are supposed to be able to come in and be sponsored by their employer. That's the idea," he said at a campaign event in Duryea, Pennsylvania on Friday.

Noting that there are some "highly specialised" areas meant to be covered under it, the Illinois Senator said: "Let's say, you know, you need a nuclear physicist in a particular area, and you just can't find one. And it turns out there's a guy who is Indian, who fits the bill. And you've gone out and you've tried to recruit people. ... And your business needs this. That's what the H2B visa is supposed to be for."

However, he said, the "problem" is that if employers want "to game the system, they might decide... We'll get a software engineer from India, even though there are a bunch of software engineers here... because we can pay him or her less. And that then undercuts the labour market and wages" in the US.

Obama's remarks were actually in an obvious reference to the H1B visa category in which software engineers would fit into. It is unclear whether the Senator had inadvertently strayed into the realm of H1B visas in the course of making his thoughts on the issue known, but he made it clear he will ensure that the high skilled visas will not be manipulated.

He was asked to comment on reports that businesses are pressuring the Bush administration to change the ways about determining the employment status where businesses would grant H2B status instead of having a state agency ascertain if there is a need.

The H-2B visa category allows US employers in industries with peak load, seasonal or intermittent needs to augment their existing labour force with temporary workers. Typically, H-2B workers fill labour needs in occupational areas such as construction, health care, landscaping, manufacturing, food service and processing and resort and hospitality services.