A good number of businesses and establishments in the United States of America (USA) have felt the need to employ people from other countries in order to remain globally competitive. Examples of US companies that requested special visas so they can hire highly skilled foreign workers are the University of Delaware, DuPont Co., Bank of America, AstraZeneca PLC and ING Direct. David LeDuc, public policy director for the software and information association in America, said, "If Congress does not take action to reform the system, the global competitiveness of many American companies will be threatened."

For this reason, companies in the Unites States of America (USA) are urging the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to create reforms on the current system. They want a faster and easier process in the issuance of US working visas. According to some companies, the current quota of 65,000 working visas per annum is just not enough to meet the current demand. Companies further stressed that the 65,000 quota have not been increased for 17 years.

Unfortunately, the issue regarding illegal immigrants made the US congress hesitant to increase the quota despite demands from different sectors including President Bush. This year, the limit in the number of petitions for visas was reached in one day -- the fastest time ever. By Monday afternoon, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services already had received 150,000 petitions, more than double the number of new visas available.

As of this writing, a comprehensive immigration reform bill is being discussed and reviewed. This controversial bill aims to add 50,000 visas to the current quota of 65,000. Furthermore, in the event that the proposed 115,000 visa is reached in a year then the quota will again be increased to 180,000 the succeeding year.

Those who are not in favor of this bill contradict by saying that the increased quota will lead to abuse in the rights of the foreign workers and will bring in more visa complaints and violations.