New US visa tailored for technology

US visa tailored for technology James Riley JUNE 01, 2005 THE technology industry will be among the chief beneficiaries of a new clbutt of US business visa that specifically targets Australian workers.

The new US E-3 visa was signed into law by President George Bush two weeks ago and will allow up to 10,500 Australians to live and work in the US.

Previously Australian businessmen and workers were forced to compete with the rest of the world for the pool of 65,000 business-sponsored visas known as the H1-B. Last year, Australians were issued with just 986 H1-B visas.

US Congressman James Sensenbrenner, who chaired the US House of Representative committee that created the new visa, said the E-3 was the only US visa that targeted the citizens of a single country for special treatment.

The E-3 visa will be welcomed by industry groups like the Australian Information Industry buttociation and the Australian Computer Society, which were both dismayed that better provisions for business travel was not included in the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement.

Congressman Sensenbrenner, who was in Canberra yesterday for talks with Immigration officials, said the visa issue could not be included in the agreement because the FTA was negotiated by the executive branch of government, while immigration was a congressional matter.

"But I did tell former Ambbuttador (to the US Michael) Thawley ... that I could see what could be done to incorporate the request of the Australian Government into separate legislation that dealt with immigration," the Congressman said.

"We were able to do it fairly quickly in terms of the timeframes of the US Congress acting on legislation, and the proper legislative authority is now pbutted."

The first E-3 visas should be issued in the next two to three months, Congressman Sensenbrenner said, once the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had issued the administrative regulations that would enact the legislation.

"What I will do is try to build a fire under Secretary Rice so that we can get these regulations promulgated as quickly as possible," he said.

Congressman Sensenbrenner toured Customs facilities at Sydney airport on Monday, and said Australia was a world leader in the production of tamper-proof biometric pbuttports.

He said all visa-waiver countries - of which Australia is one - would need to introduce biometric pbuttports by the US deadline of October 26. While Australia was well advanced in its biometric pbuttport project, some European countries were behind.

Though the US had last year extended the deadline for its biometric program by 12 months, it was unlikely to extend the deadline again.

"I would think that (an extension) will be unlikely and I've told representatives of governments of visa waiver countries to expect that deadline to be adhered to," the Congressman said.

"The chances of both houses pbutting an extension and having it signed by the president are very, very slim," he said.