US Congress tables Bill to remove per-country cap on green card
2 min read
Bipartisan legislation has been introduced in the US House of Representatives to eliminate the per-country cap on the employment-based green card.
The legislation was presented by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and Congressman John Curtis and it is probably going to profit Indian IT professionals anguishing over many years of green card wait.
However, the Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act, 2021, needs to be passed by the Senate. Before it can be sent to the White House for the President to sign it into law.
The Bill phases out the 7 percent per-country limit on an employment-based immigrant visa
Also, the bill phases out the 7 percent per-country limit on a family-sponsored visa to 15 percent.
US Congress tables Bill to remove per-country cap on green card
Moreover, its predecessor, the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act, was passed in the House. In the 116th Congress with a resonating bipartisan vote of 365 to 65. “We all know that our immigration system is seriously broken and it has been broken for decades“. Said Lofgren, Chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship.
The basic system for allotting the immigrant visa dates back to the middle of the twentieth century. And was last genuinely updated in 1990 when Congress established. The worldwide mathematical limits on visas and the seven percent per-country cap that actually exists today, she said.
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Over time, these restrictions have led to backlogs that were unimaginable in 1990. Also, the impact has been that nations with relatively small populations are allocated the same number of visas as a relatively large population country.
“The result? An individual from a large-population country with extraordinary qualifications who could contribute greatly to our economy and create jobs waits behind an individual with lesser qualifications from a smaller country,” she added.
