Immigration reform for foreign STEM graduate students

On Behalf of International Student Community we request President Obama and the administration to draft a bill to allow foreign STEM graduates from accredited schools to apply directly for green cards. Currently, many foreign-student graduates rely on H-1B employment-based visas to stay longer than is allowed under OPT, yet only 26,000 of the annually available 85,000 H-1B visas were granted to foreign graduates of U.S. universities.Providing pathways for green card to retain highly qualified graduates from American higher educational institutions, an important step toward preserving the United States’ status as a hub of technology and knowledge creation, which also contributes for economic growth of nation.