The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved up to 30,000 additional foreign-worker visas a year in a program popular with technology vendors.

The Senate approved a proposal to "recapture" unused H-1B visas going back to the early 1990s and to add up to 30,000 of those unused visas to the 65,000 annual cap. The number of applications for H-1Bs for the federal government's fiscal year 2006 hit the cap in August, a month and a half before the fiscal year began.

The H-1B increase passed as part of a large budget bill aimed at reducing the U.S. government budget deficit. A House version of the budget bill does not increase the number of H-1B visas, and the full House may vote on that bill as early as next week. Negotiators would have to iron out differences between the two bills before a compromise bill would go to President George Bush for his signature.

Technology trade groups have called for an increase in the cap, saying they can't find enough workers with specialized skills. Backers of higher limits say H-1B visas help U.S. tech companies attract the best talent, and the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) praised the Senate for raising the H-1B cap.

“The Senate has grabbed the opportunity to make a real difference for America’s high tech future,” ITAA President Harris Miller said in a statement. “Recapturing these visas will give an immediate boost to U.S. competitiveness in overseas markets.”

An earlier proposal in the Senate Judiciary Committee would have recaptured up to 60,000 extra visas a year, but Senator Dianne Feinstein pushed for a smaller increase. She said then she was concerned about the effect on U.S. jobs, including on tech workers.

The Senate bill would include an additional $500 application fee for the recaptured visas. It would also impose an additional $750 fee on L-1 visa applications. L-1 visas are used by IT vendors and other companies to hire executive-level workers from overseas. The House version of the budget bill increases the L-1 fee by $1,500.

The House bill "provides no relief to firms and other organizations in need of recruiting talent globally," said Jeff Lande, a senior vice president at ITAA.

Technology worker organizations including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA (IEEE-USA) have opposed increases in H-1B limits. U.S. IT and electrotechnology professionals saw a 1.5% decrease in their salaries in 2003, the first decrease since IEEE-USA began surveying members in 1972, the group said in December.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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