Otto is one of the tens of thousands of foreign scientific and technical workers in the United States on H - 1B visas, which
admit nonimmigrant skilled workers for a limited number of years.
The bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act «to authorize certain aliens who have earned a Ph.D. degree from a United States institution of higher education in a field of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics to be
admitted for permanent residence and to be exempted from the numerical limitations on H - 1B
nonimmigrants» (H.R. 1791).