November 18, 2015
By Neil Munro
President Barack Obama is quietly opening another immigration door just for foreign professionals —and 120,000 overseas graduates are rationally rushing in to snag U.S. white-collar jobs and the chance to win the greatest prize on the planet: American citizenship.
The growing rush was highlighted Nov. 16 by the New-York-based Institute of International Education, which showed a dramatic increase in foreign professionals joining the the “Optional Practical Training” visa program.The OPT program allows foreign graduates of U.S. colleges to work in the United States for up to 29 months in a wide variety of white-collar business, video, journalism, art, medical and technology jobs.
Obama’s deputies have already broadened the types of jobs that can be taken, and are now expanding the visa term up to three years, or up to six years if the foreigner gets two degrees from U.S. colleges, despite pushback from Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
The number of OPT participants jumped from 76,031 in the 2010/2011 sch0ol year, up to 120,287 in the 2014/15 school year, according to the N.Y.-based Institute of International Education. That is a 71 percent increase in four years. … Read the full story by Neil Munro.
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