GERMANY EXTENDS WORK PERMITS FOR FOREIGN COMPUTER EXPERTS.

• Position: Brief Article

The German Government decided on July 9 to extend until December 31, 2004 the issuing of special work permits - so-called "green cards" - to foreign computer experts, pending a vote on an immigration bill. These five-year special work permits, only available to IT graduates from outside the European Union, were introduced on August 1, 2000. "More than two jobs can and have been created for each computer specialist taken on", according to Government spokes-person Bela Anda. The Conservative opposition has meanwhile denounced the initiative as a flop, claiming that just 14,500 "green cards" have been issued...