Bill To Remove Country Caps For PR Set To Be Discussed

The US House Judiciary Committee is set to markup and vote Tuesday on the qual Access to Green cards for Legal Employment(EAGLE) Act (HR 3648). The bill is to remove the discriminatory per-country limits on green cards.

The legislation seeks to remove the 7% per country cap on employment-based green cards in a phased manner. This cap removal holds a ray of hope for stuck Indian professionals waiting for employment-based green cards.

Under the current 7% cap, certain countries like India and China, which account for over 40% of the world’s population and an even higher percentage of the high-skilled global workforce, receive the same amount of visas as Denmark. This country accounts for 0.001% of the world’s population.

As a result, immigrants from certain countries are forced to wait 20 to 30 times longer for lawful PR status, Immigration Voice said.

“This creates an economically unhealthy reliance,” it noted.

Titled “Higher‐paid Immigrants Forced to Wait Longer Due to Per‐country Limits,” the study estimates that removing national origin discrimination on employment-based Green Cards will raise the average wage of an employment-based immigrant by $11,592 – which is a 12% increase.

The EAGLE Act would correct these problems by creating a system where all equally qualified high-skilled workers. No matter their country of birth will receive employment-based green cards in the order in which they apply and based solely on the skills they bring to America, Immigration Voice said.

Also, while the backlog is being cleared, the system will ensure that the bill does not adversely impact skilled immigrants from non-backlogged countries who are currently in line, it said.