I ask because a Justice Department Appropriations Authorization bill signed by President Bush on Nov. 2 has a provision that could affect the job picture for engineers. A section of that legislation extends the current six-year term for H-1B visa holders, who now essentially may stay in the United States indefinitely until they receive a green card, as long as they remain employed.

HR.2215 seems innocuous on the surface. It gives the DOJ authorization for combating terrorism, improving law enforcement, fighting crime and drugs, and enhancing intellectual-property protection, as well as strengthening the judiciary-all good things. But a small section of the bill deals with "improving immigration procedures" for visa holders, including H-1Bs supposedly brought to this country for skills that Americans don't have. Companies sponsor them to fill jobs they can't fill otherwise because of a shortage of labor.

The new legislation extends the H-1B status for aliens who file a labor certification more than 365 days before the end of their sixth year. The change supposedly stems from lengthy processing times at the Department of Labor, which have reportedly lasted as long as a year in some cases-meaning that some H-1Bs have had to leave the country before their green-card application could be considered.

From what I understand, the stay can be extended so long as an H-1B is employed for one year beyond the six-year term. This extension would be renewed each year indefinitely until a decision is made on the green card. It's not clear if H-1Bs who are laid off will have to find another sponsoring employer.

Unfortunately, it seems that only a scattering of immigration-oriented news Web sites paid attention to this section of the law. I was unaware of it myself until a reader clued me in.

I asked Pete Bennett, an unemployed high-tech professional in the Valley who runs the Web site www.nomoreh1b.com, what he thought. "The bill is another example of how our elected officials have lost touch with the real problems facing America today," Bennett said in an e-mail. "The H-1B program is not about a perceived skills shortage; it's about 195,000 workers where the agencies that control them can charge [the sponsoring employers] $150,000 or more per year. This is a multibillion-dollar industry that Congress created with a stroke of a pen."

I don't advocate stopping immigration, but it seems to me that bringing in more guest workers at a time when 3.58 million Americans are collecting unemployment insurance is not the best idea. Another 176,000 announced corporate layoffs in October alone means there's a problem. It's not a shortage of labor.