The US can be expected to dissolve 7% per-country caps on the issuance of employment-based green cards with the Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act 2022.
The US House Judiciary Committee cleared the Bill for the EAGLE Act in April 2022. It has now been presented by two US Senators in the US Senate.
The EAGLE Act provisions will dissolve the 7% per-country limit on employment-based immigrant visas. Additionally, it will also raise the 7% per-country limit to 15%, on family-sponsored visas.
Presently, a 7% per country cap allows the issuance of only 1.4 lakh employment-based green cards annually. If the allotment exceeds the 7% cap, applicants have to wait for a visa to become available to get either their backlog form or approved petition considered.
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As per the data of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), 369,322 applicants, with approved petitions, are awaiting visa availability to get their green cards. The majority of these have applied for EB2 and EB3 (professional and skilled workers) categories, relevant to tech companies for sponsoring immigrant workers.
Poorvi Chothani, the managing partner at LawQuest, has interpreted the data as not showing the number of family members attached to these backlogs, which are also considered a part of the 7% per-country cap.
Some countries, such as India and China, face excessive backlogs, which come up every year, due to such procedures. Only recently, USCIS has had to do away with several in-person interviews to expedite the visa processing and backlog clearance.
Also Read: India in Talks With US, UK, Canada, Other Countries on Student Visa Delays
Another set of data from the US visa office revealed that in the 2021 fiscal year, 66,781 unused employment-based green cards were lying, while 1.4 million immigrants were awaiting visa availability.
The Act’s enactment will also allow employers to divert focus from birthplace-based hiring. They will be able to hire immigrants on the basis of merit, irrespective of their place of origin.
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Source: The Economic Times
