For a while now, US technology companies have complained they cannot easily hire foreign talent. They compete with outsourcing firms to get a proportionate share of the reduced H1-B allocation each year. But a recent move by Homeland Security allows them to extend foreign student (with certain science and engineering degrees) training from 12 to 29 months. US Technology companies are more likely to directly hire foreign students from US universities for the F-1 visa than the outsourcing firms, who tend to bring their employees from home country.
If the program works as advertised, it should also keep US universities attractive to foreign students. The ability to work in the US for a technology company for 2.5 years after graduation is a nice sweetener to consider going to school here.
Of course, nothing related to immigration is ever simple - the pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower must be turning in their graves as they see how convoluted our immigration process has become.
