Washington – Bill Gates, the chairman of Redmond, Washington based software giant Microsoft, appealing the Congress to US open gates for foreign tech pros, called for more US visas for skilled professionals. Echoing the demand often made in US tech sector on Wednesday, Gates asked the US Congress to make US visa terms & conditions easier to facilitate tech companies to hire tech professionals from foreign countries easily. The demand, however, is thought to be unsound by some members of Congress who want to make US visa terms & conditions harder.

Gates appealed the U.S. House of Representatives' Science and Technology Committee that in the wake of the "critical shortfall of skilled scientists and engineers” in United States, the US education system really needs improvements, but presently more visas for skilled workers are desperately needed.    

The Microsoft Chief brought it to Congress’ attention that the 65,000 H-1B visas allotted for professional workers annually was inadequate. He pointed out that the 2007 quota was filled on the first day they became available.

Gates said that he wanted Congress to raise the number of the most common type of skilled worker visa, called an H-1B, and so do many other big tech companies, including Google, Intel, and Hewlett-Packard want.

Gates advocated, “The United States has the best schools, especially in engineering and computer sciences, but the majority of the students in the computer science department are foreign-born.”

“The preference for a company like Microsoft is to hire these people, but they were often unable to get visas to stay,” the Microsoft founder said.

On the contrary, the critics, such as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, who want to make H-1Bs harder to obtain, say that Microsoft and other companies wanted more H-1B visas because foreign-born workers were cheaper. They take American jobs and reduce wages by working for less than their U.S. counterparts. In order to hire enough American professionals, he said, "You’d have to raise wages."

According to Ron Hira, a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and author of Outsourcing America, Congress allocates about 65,000 standard H-1B visas each fiscal year. Exemptions and related visas often raise the number of skilled worker permits to nearly 130,000.

The demand is lot more than supply. In fiscal 2007, which began Oct. 1, 2006, the main type of H-1B visa was used up by early April. The debate appears to be unending. The number of the main type of H-1B visas has not changed since 2002. But neither of the sides is ready to back down.