C ongress has an ongoing interest in regulating the immigration of professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers to the United States. This workforce is seen by many as a catalyst of U.S. global economic competitiveness and is likewise considered a key element of the legislative options aimed at stimulating economic growth. The challenge central to the policy debate is facilitating the migration of professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers without adversely affecting U.S. workers and U.S. students entering the labor market. This report opens with an overview of the policy issues. It follows with a summary of each of the various visa categories available for temporary professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers as well as an analysis of the trends in the use of these various visas over the past two decades. The policy of authorizing foreign students to work in the United States for at least a year following graduation is discussed next. The labor market tests for employers hiring temporary foreign workers are also summarized. The rules regarding federal taxation of professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers are explained. The report concludes with a discussion of the avenues for professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers to become legal permanent residents (LPRs) in the United States. Temporary visas for professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers have become an important gateway for high-skilled immigration to the United States. Over the past two decades, the number of visas issued annually for all temporary employment-based admission has more than doubled from just over 400,000 in FY1994 to over 1 million in FY2015. As Figure 1 shows, the total number of temporary employment-based visas issued in FY2007 and FY2008 surpassed 1 million and subsequently fell during the 2007-2009 recession. While the total visa numbers include some unskilled and low-skilled workers, the visas for managerial, skilled, and professional workers depicted in Figure 1 clearly dominate the trends. In FY2014 and FY2015, visas for managerial, skilled, and professional workers surpassed the prior peak year of FY2007 (885,232) as they reached 929,129 and 984,360, respectively. The data presented in Figure 1 understate the trends in professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers because the State Department does not issue visas to nonimmigrants who change status within the United States. For example, a foreign national who is in the United States as a student may convert status to a temporary foreign worker nonimmigrant without going abroad to obtain a new visa. For comparison, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics estimated that there were approximately 1.1 million temporary workers and long-term exchange residents living in the United States in January 2012; and the State Department reported that there were 937,366 visas issued to temporary employment-based workers and their families in FY2012. The foreign labor certification program in the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is responsible for ensuring that foreign workers do not displace or adversely affect the working conditions of U.S. workers. Under current law, DOL adjudicates labor certification applications (LCA) for permanent employment-based immigrants. Many of the foreign nationals entering the United States on a temporary basis for employment, however, are not subject to any labor market tests (i.e., demonstrating that there are not sufficient U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available), and as a result, their employers do not file LCAs with the DOL. There are several groups of temporary foreign employees, however, that are covered by labor market tests. DOL adjudicates the streamlined LCA known as labor attestations for certain temporary workers, as discussed more fully below . The admission of professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers poses a complex set of policy questions as the United States competes internationally for the most talented workers in the world, while the nation also contends with historically high long-term unemployment rates and youth unemployment rates. Should the number of professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers be numerically limited each year? If so, should some classes or types of workers be exempt from numerical limits? Should employers of professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers be required to meet labor markets tests, such as making efforts to recruit U.S. workers and offering wages and benefits that are comparable to similarly employed U.S. workers? What, if any, labor protections and worker rights should be extended to professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers to prevent abuse or exploitation of the worker? What, if any, guarantees should professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers make to their employers to ensure the contractual obligations are met? Should professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers have "visa portability" so they can change jobs? If so, to what visa categories and under what circumstances should visa portability apply? Should regulations governing the admission of professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers be streamlined so that the rules are less time consuming and burdensome for employers? Should professional, managerial, and skilled foreign workers be permitted to have "dual intent," that is, to apply for lawful permanent resident (LPR) status while seeking or renewing temporary visas? If so, for what visa categories and under what circumstances should dual intent be permitted? In addition to these cross-cutting questions, policymakers and advocates have focused on two visa categories in particular: H-1B visas for professional specialty workers, and L visas for intra-company transferees. These two nonimmigrant visas epitomize the tensions between the global competition for talent and potential adverse effects on the U.S. workforce. H-1B visas are for temporary "professional specialty workers," an employment category closely associated with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, but not limited to them. The H-1B visa has been an important avenue for many U.S. businesses seeking to recruit high-skilled foreign workers, but the category has numerical limits. Applications for new H-1B workers have routinely exceeded such limits in recent years—in some years exceeding limits during the first week or even on the first day that applications are received. In addition to these concerns about whether employers have adequate access to H-1B workers, some Members of Congress have raised questions about whether H-1B workers may be placing downward pressure on wages and benefits as well as discouraging or displacing U.S. students in STEM fields. Over the years, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued reports that recommended more controls to protect workers, to prevent abuses, and to streamline services in the issuing of H-1B visas. GAO has observed that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has limited authority to question information on the labor attestation form and to initiate enforcement activities. In 2011, GAO identified several weaknesses in the H-1B program's ability to protect workers: (1) oversight that is fragmented between four agencies and restricted by law; (2) lack of legal authority to hold employers accountable to program requirements when they obtain H-1B workers through a staffing company; and (3) expansions that have increased the pool of H-1B workers beyond the cap and lowered the bar for eligibility. A 2008 internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigation of H-1B visa adjudications found a 13.4% fraud rate as well as a 7.3% technical violation rate. Violations reportedly ranged from document fraud to deliberate misstatements regarding job locations, wages paid, and duties performed. The investigation also discovered that some petitioning employers shifted the burden of paying various filing fees to foreign workers. A 2010 DHS investigation found a 14% "not verified" rate, which U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials cited to suggest a reduced level of fraud in the H-1B program. It was unclear, however, how the 14% "not verified" rate compared with 13.4% fraud rate and the 7.3% technical violation rate. Media coverage of the links between H-1B workers and outsourced jobs has sparked outrage, and a bipartisan group of Members has called for further investigations and legislative action. More specifically, the major U.S. utility company Southern California Edison announced plans in early 2015 to lay off 400 U.S. technology workers and to outsource the technology-related work to companies in India. The India-based companies reportedly proposed to use H-1B workers to perform technology-related work that would remain in California. More recently, the New York Times published a series that exposed companies such as Disney and Toys 'R' Us requiring their U.S. workers to train H-1B workers before their positions were outsourced overseas. The L-1 intra-company transferee visa was established for companies that have offices abroad to transfer key personnel freely within the organization. It is considered a visa category essential to retaining and expanding international businesses in the United States. Some, however, have raised concerns that intra-company transferees on the L-1 visa may displace U.S. workers who had been employed in those positions for these firms in the United States. Others express concern that the L-1 visa has become a substitute for the H-1B visa, noting that L-1 employees are often comparable in skills and occupations to H-1B workers, yet lack the labor market protections the law sets for hiring H-1B workers. These concerns have been raised, in particular, with respect to certain outsourcing and information technology firms that employ L-1 workers as subcontractors within the United States. A related concern is that an unchecked use of L-1 visas will foster the transfer of STEM and other high-skilled professional jobs overseas, as managers and specialists gain experience in the United States before they transfer the operations abroad.