How the New Immigration Bill Would Revamp the EB Preference System

The Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill introduced in the House of Representatives would revamp the existing employment-based (EB) preference system in a number of important ways:

 

 

      1)  Increase in EB Numbers - The number of employment-based green     cards would increase from 140,000 to 290,000 per year.   

 

2)   Recapture – Currently, 140,000 persons are permitted to immigrate to the U.S. each year under the EB preference system.  If less than 140,000 visa numbers are given out by the end of the government’s fiscal year on September 30, the remaining numbers are essentially thrown away.  As a result, in most years, 20,000 to 30,000 visa numbers are lost. 

 

The bill would change this system so that whatever EB visa numbers are remaining at the end of the fiscal year would simply be carried over to the next fiscal year.  In addition, all the visa numbers which were lost during the past 17 fiscal years would be “recaptured” and used to help clear the growing backlogs in the system.  We estimate these recaptured visas would number in the hundreds of thousands.

 

3)    Exemptions from the Annual Visa Cap – In the family-based preference system, “immediate relatives” of U.S. citizens (parents, spouses and children) are exempt from numerical limits.  However, in the current EB system, no one is exempt.  Every system needs to have priorities.  The new bill would make the following categories of immigrants exempt from the EB cap:

a.   Schedule A Shortage Occupations – Registered Nurses and Physical Therapists;

b.  STEM workers – Persons with M.S. or Ph.D. degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics who have worked in the U.S.

c.   Recipients of Masters or higher degrees from U.S. universities;

d.   Recipients of medical specialty certification based on postdoctoral training and experience in the United States;

e.   Persons with approved National Interest Waivers; and

f. Spouses and children of those persons in the above categories.

 

4)      Early Applications for Adjustment of Status – In a welcome break from the past, the new bill would allow persons with approved EB visa petitions to immediately apply for adjustment of status, and to obtain both work permits and travel authorization in three-year increments.  Presently, persons with approved EB visa petitions must wait until their priority dates become current before they can apply for adjustment of status.  This was not a significant problem when backlogs were short or nonexistent.  However, now that the retrogression has resulted in backlogs of up to 7 to 8 years, persons must continually extend their H-1B status, or if they are in another nonimmigrant status, they may not be able to seek an extension at all.  Persons who apply for adjustment of status before their priority dates are current will be subject to a $500 surcharge. 

 

5)    Exemptions from PERM – Certain EB immigrants are exempt from the PERM requirement.  The new bill will exempt two additional groups from PERM:   

a.   Recipients of medical specialty certification based on postdoctoral training and experience in the United States; and

b.   Recipients of Masters or higher degrees from U.S. universities.

 

 

6)  Increased Per-Country Limitation – The percentage of EB green cards which could be used for persons from a single country would be increased from 7% of 140,000 (9,800) to 10% of 290,000 (29,000) per year.

 

The new bill would create a “Commission on Immigration and Labor Markets” which would make recommendations regarding future flows of workers to the U.S. The bill would also create a web-based job search engine dubbed the “American Worker Recruitment and Match System” (AWRMS).  The system would match job seekers with employers and would be established and run by the various State Workforce Agencies (SWAs).

 

We link to detailed summaries of the new bill from our “Immigration Legislation” page at

http://shusterman.com/toc-leg.html#3

Our next blog post will describe how the new bill would change the existing family-based preference system.

Comments

[Rave Rich]

It is just a bill. I do not think it has any chance of passing in the Congress. However, some websites create lot of hype and draw internet traffic. But fellow greencard aspirants, do not get your hope too high, else you will be in for an unnecessary heart break.

[sj]

Another way to say that the bill is not going to approve as it is part of CIR with a burden of 20 millions illegal alliens adjustment its not gona fly.

[myla m azana]

am praying that..hopefully all registered nurses and physical therapist must be exempt in this proposed bill...

[rodel]

There should be two separet bills one for Illegal immigrants. and one for legal immigrant to legalise.

[fkarim]

i dont see any signs of this bill passing. its just too good to pass congress

[S K]

The legal immigrants must have a seperate bill and it must target and fix the issues in employment based category. We pay taxes, follow and abide law and pay around 15K (visa extensions, renewal, AOS filing, EAD/AP extensions) for one person in a family to immigrate. As such the wait time for us is 10 years. If 15 million people join us in the line, it will take atleast 100 years to get the greencard. The illegals must form a diffent queue and dealt seperately.

[rlavari]

Their should not be limit for any country this is against the rule of equal oppotunity employer term, most of the technological Saavy country like india, China and phillipines have major backlock and should be eliminate to remove the backlog all the time. it is not fare to people who wait 10 year for green card while other categories get process in 80 days. It is discrimination of origin for immigrant.

[andavan]

@SK,
It is not discrimination. As a matter of fact if you do as you say that is discrimination against a certain origin of immigrant.
They allocate 7% of total GC's to different countries. So every country has equal chance. Similarly India and china gets 7% each of the pie (total gc's per year) according to the diversity act. Therefore no discrimination. Just because India and china are the most populous and many people apply from here, does not mean they have to get more percetage per year. The one that you are asking is to discriminate against nations. according to your logic, they have to increase the percentage for India and China. India and china line would never be satisfied, because even if you increase the percentage or total visa numbers there are going to be more people who would immigrate here. You just have to wait if the 7% is filled per year by your countrymen/women.

AA

[Frusterated Physician from India]

I am an Indian Physician came to US on J1 visa in 1999. Played by rules and had one step after another- got H1 -did waiver requirement- finally after 10 years here in US still -no Green Card and I make more than 300K per year , (i.e. more than 90K tax paid per year). So far for various attorney fees and visas and Immgration- I have spent in last 10 years more than 35000 US $ ( When I came to US 10 years ago, I heard 3 cases where they recieved their Green Card via Immigration attorney's help Legally in less than 2 years sitting in thier native country twisting immigration playbook). Point is as of today's date -I do not have Green Card after 10 years of following all rules of Immigration honestly.

[TK]

For a country that sets so much store by the free market, its immigration laws and bills (this bill included) seem straight out of some soviet era manual. Why should the government be in the business of determining who is useful to this country and who is not? Why not let the market determine that? Congress should simply set a percentile level of wages (say 80%), and just require that a potential immigrant earn more than those wage levels for a consecutive period of time (say 5 years), regardless of whether he or she is a physician, an engineer, a beautician or a rock star. The more you make above those levels, the faster you get a green card. It would be far easier to regulate (tax returns?) and would adapt to economic conditions really well.

[The frustrated waiter]

I also want to be optimistic about this bill and I will pray for this bill to pass!However, I won't put my expectation too high, I heard this before but it never passed! I am a Registred Nurse, had my bachelor in nursing in the US university and I have been living here for over 10years now and still no green card. I abide by the law, pay taxes ($15,000/yr + another $$$ for Work permit extensions, travel doc, etc) and go through lot of wait imes at immigration whenever I travel!!! Why can't they just resolve this backlog!!!

[caca1225]

Honestly, I don't wish this bill to pass coz it's simply just not fair. I've been here for 13 years for my BS and MS degree + years of working. In overall, the education costs me and my family at least $200k let alone over $60k of annual tax from both me and my spouse. Even though the great pain to go through GC process, I don't feel it's fair for somebody who doesn't follow the rules and get in line ahead of us, and don't mention that ridiculous $500 fine congressmen proposed, that is a big slap to faces of those who follow the rules.

The reason why the congressmen did not propose separated bills for legal and illegal aliens is because they want to use us to make this bill less controversial. While we're praying for a little mercy from congressmen to at least allow wider exempt categories or clear up the backlog, for illegal aliens, all they required are learn English (WTF!! Does it count if I can say how are you?), has been a good contribution to the society (measure by what??), and have been paying tax in the past (yeah, pay $1 and get $5 back from insurance, school, food stamp, section 8 etc. Nice math skills congressmen!).

I'd rather go through the painful process than be used by those disgusting congressmen. If they're really care about the backlog of EB or FB, they'd just proposed a separated bill. Apparently, they only care about their votes, not legal aliens, not illegal aliens, and not even Americans. I'd rather go through the painful process than having 20 millions (plus their relatives) aliens to cost me higher tax in the future!!

[is77]

I wonder if this is in the list of immigration reform items Pres. Obama plans to tackle this year. Probably not!
Unless the legal immigrants rally like the illegals and make a big media hype about the issue, no one is going to listen.
Regarding the 7% limit, congress needs to keep diversity and current levels of community populations in mind- Indians are probably 2% of the US population- so how is it fair to limit the inflow of people from India- so much for diversity and equal opportunity in the US.

[RamonGustav]

Congratulations! You have so much useful information, write more.

[RamonGustav]

I think you are not quite right and you should still studying the matter.

[Pradeep]

This CIR is being discussed from march-2009. I just read an archived article from usanews!

Its been 4 years and this proposal is still a 'proposal only'. Neither the bush cared nor obama administration cares a damn about skilled foreign workers and their issues with immigration. 4 yrs no change so how can we optimistically expect changes after election??

[Pradeep]

Sorry I mentioned the month and year wrong in my previous comment! The CIR is being talked about since March-2006 or maybe even earlier than that!

[Payboancy]

Racism In Medicine Pubmed http://raghavonline.com/ - adipex
[url=http://raghavonline.com/]buy adipex 37.5[/url]
See the list of reliable online pharmacies selling low cost Adipex.
http://raghavonline.com/ - adipex online without prescription

[Viagra]

http://viagrakaufend.com reimport viagra rezeptfrei bestellen [url=http://viagrakaufend.com]kaufen wien viagra preis österreich[/url] rezept viagra online
online kaufen viagra ohne rezept unverträglichkeit kaufen viagra

[Payday Loans]

[url=http://paydayloansonline24h.com/]payday advance[/url] trusted payday loans
payday loans akron ohio

[Buy Cipro]

http://ciprofloxacinbestprice.com/ buy cipro online no prescription [url=http://ciprofloxacinbestprice.com/]ciprofloxacin 500mg[/url] the drug cipro urinary tract infection
cipro ciprofloxacin generic levitra price

[cheap levitra]

http://doxycyclinebestprice.com/ tetracycline doxycycline [url=http://doxycyclinebestprice.com/]doxycycline hyclate[/url] doxycycline for sinus infection

[Azithromycin]

http://doxycyclinebestprice.com/ doxycycline hyclate drug interactions [url=http://doxycyclinebestprice.com/]buy doxycycline[/url] tetracycline doxycycline
п»їhttp://nolvadexbestprice.com/ no prescription nolvadex [url=http://nolvadexbestprice.com/]nolvadex price[/url] zeneca nolvadex buy clomid
http://ciprofloxacinbestprice.com/ buy cipro without a rx [url=http://ciprofloxacinbestprice.com/]order cipro[/url] ciprofloxacin without prescription urinary tract infections

[online payday loans]

http://paydayloanholiday.com payday advance in jacksonville fl [url=http://paydayloanholiday.com]online loans[/url] cash now payday loans
payday lending association

[Propecia]

http://propeciaph.com cheap finasteride propecia online [url=http://propeciaph.com]propecia[/url] the big three hair loss propecia finasteride
proscar finasteride 5mg