US Senate passes Bill to remove country caps on employment-based green cards; hurdles remain
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On Wednesday the US Senate passed a bill that strives to do away with the country caps on employment-based green cards. As of now, the US issues 140,000 of these green cards every year with a national cap of 7%. There are more than 800,000 Indians in line for an employment-based green card. As of April 2020 according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) information.
While the S386 Bill had earlier been cleared by the House of Representatives (Fairness for High-Skilled Workers Act HR 1044). The version passed by the Senate has is unique from the earlier one. Immigration legal counselors advised against taking the passage of this Bill as meaning that it would soon become law.
Everybody needs to understand that the passage of the Senate bill is only the early steps in this process. It needs to return to the House who needs to accommodate the Senate version with the version they passed and then have it sent to the President for signature. Nonetheless, it seems unlikely that the House will accept the Senate version because of the exclusion of Chinese nationals with military affiliations, said Nandini Nair, partner at law firm Greenspoon Marder.
US Senate passes Bill to remove country caps on Green Cards
The version passed by the Senate says that in years one-nine after execution. No more than 70% of the green cards can go to H-1 visa holders and their dependents. This drops to half from year ten. The other change says that no Chinese national affiliated with the Chinese military or the Chinese Communist Party can enter the United States or be eligible to change visa status under any category. This would affect almost all Chinese nationals. Most Chinese students are important for a young organization affiliated to the CCP in some manner.
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As with all laws, it is not possible to predict what will happen next. The representatives of the two houses should resolve the differences and accommodate them. And only then will it be passed by the two Houses. After that, it goes to the President, and hopefully, this will happen during the new government. When it might be simpler to get it passed,” said Rajiv S Khanna, managing lawyer at immigration.com. A few enormous tech organizations regularly sponsor permanent residency for employees on H-1B or L1 visas as a way to hold on to high-skilled talent in key roles.
