A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a new bill calling for granting non-immigrant U.S. visas for highly-skilled workers from South Korea, Congressional records showed Sunday.
The 20 lawmakers, led by Rep. Peter J. Roskam (R-IL), submitted the bill (H.R.1019) on Friday, according to the records. The legislation is titled, "To provide high-skilled visas for nationals of the Republic of Korea, and for other purposes."
Details of the legislation were not immediately available.
But it is believed to be similar to previous bills that had called for issuing up to 15,000 H-1B visas each year to South Koreans with professional skills in such areas as information technology, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, biotechnology and medicine and health.
Currently, such visas are granted to only about 3,500 South Koreans a year. South Korea's government has sought to increase the number, saying the current amount falls far short of the need in consideration of a growing number of South Koreans studying and seeking jobs in the U.S.
In 2013, Roskam introduced a similar bill (H.R.1812), also known as "Partner with Korea Act," and an identical bill (S.2663) was also introduced in the Senate last year. But those bills were later scrapped as the previous Congress expired.
The U.S. allows companies to temporarily hire foreign workers in specialty occupations by issuing the H-1B visa. If the legislation becomes law, South Korea will no longer be subject to the 85,000 annual visa limit for H-IB visas worldwide. (Yonhap)
