A Paradigm Shift in the Green Card Criteria a Boon for Indian Americans

The employment-based immigrant visas, often referred to as green cards, are allotted to residents with a transformed preference from per-country quota to merit-based, eliminating the backlogs.

The White House is assisting the US Congress to pass legislation aiming at the elimination of the per-country quota on issuing green cards. The act shifts employers of the US’ focus on recruiting people per the merit criterion, inconsiderate of their birthplace, and thus, is anticipated to benefit Indian-Americans on a wide scale. Hence, concerning this, a vote on the EAGLE (Equal Access to Green Card for Legal Employment) Act will soon commence in the House of Representatives.

Enforcing the H.R.3648, or the EAGLE Act, enables hiring immigrants into the US State via merit category, eliminating the per-country limitation on employment-based immigrant visas, often referred to as green cards. The measure aims to phase out the per-country caps over nearly a decade, ensuring that the impacts may weigh over less-populated nations and the inclusion of eligible immigrants from varied countries.

Certain visas would likely be put aside for physical therapists and nurses, catering to the demands in the healthcare sector while restoring them for the employee-based immigrants and their family members who reside momentarily away from the US.

Alongside this, the act aims at nurturing the H-1B specialty occupation visa program, by bolstering recruitment needs, strengthening protection for US workers, and boosting transparency among residents. The H.R.3648 critically encompasses prisons in allowing individuals facing the immigrant visa backlog to file their green card applications. Though applications are approved only post the availability of a visa, the legislation aims at allowing employment-based immigrants for an induced transition off of their temporary visas while enabling additional flexibility in shifting professions.

With the employment-based green card availability reaching up to 140,000, the per-country cap-driven backlog is already assumed to have reached millions, with the majority of backlogs trailing, are from India. Nearly 75 percent of the employment-based backlog has been made by skilled workers, who wait almost nine decades to claim a green card.

Petitions filed for Indians have already surpassed 200,000, which could probably expire per the death of workers in their old age, even before claiming their employee-based immigrant visas. Therefore, reinforcing the legislation by replacing the country-based criterion with merit bias opens seamless work opportunities in the US that may consume years to come into effect.