Two significant legislations have been introduced in the US House of Representatives and Senate to end the per-country restriction on Green Cards. This move is said to be backed by technology giants from the Silicon Valley such as Google.
In the Senate, Kamala Harris, Democrats’ presidential candidate introduced the Fairness for High-skilled Immigrants Act that will remove per-country cap on employment-based green cards. A similar Bill was tabled in the House of Representatives on Immigration and Citizenship. If passed by the Congress and signed into a law, the legislations will benefit Indians on H1-B visas who have been waiting for permanent legal residency in the US.
According to the data, the US grants 1.4 lakh green cards every years to employee-based immigrants living in the US. The current regulation caps the green cards for any country at 7%. The US Senators who have tabled these legislations believe that the current law is discriminatory and needs to be more flexible as immigrants play a crucial role in contributing to the economic growth.
Noting that the immigration system is severely broken, the representatives said that this system has made several people suffer due to family-based immigration which separates them from each other. They also believe that this move will encourage highly-skilled immigrants fill knowledge gaps in America’s workforce and start their own companies in the US.
