The U.S. House has passed a Republican-led bill on Friday to increase visas for foreign students who graduate from U.S. universities with advanced degrees so as to make it easier for them to stay in the United States.

The bill - also called STEM Act - aims to reallocate 55,000 green cards distributed till now under the Diversity Visa Program to foreign students who earn advanced degrees in the U.S. for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)

A group of U.S. House members had on September introduced the bill for comprehensive immigration reform and effectively scrap the Diversity Visa Program enacted in 1990 that allows immigrants to participate in an annual lottery of up to 55,000 U.S. green cards.

The legislation would require foreign nationals to earn their degrees while living in the United States, to commit to staying in the country for at least five years, and to be sponsored by a U.S. employer. It would only apply to students who graduated from accredited U.S. colleges and universities that are at least a decade old, according to a report published in U.S. online news portal nationaljournal.com.

“In a global economy, we cannot afford to educate these foreign graduates in the U.S. and then send them back home to work for our competitors,” House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who introduced the bill along with 47 House Republicans, told the news portal. “For America to be to the world’s economic leader, we must have access to the world’s best talent.”

The bill would require companies to post STEM job openings on a state workforce agency’s jobs site before seeking foreing graduates for the position. In addition, the STEM visas created by the bill would not be available to students who graduate with advanced degrees in the biological and biomedical fields.

The bill is one of many aimed at addressing the brain drain of students who come to the United States to earn valuable skills at U.S. universities but are forced to leave the country because they can’t obtain a green card or temporary work visa, according to the report in nationaljournal.com. nepalnews.com