In an encouraging effort to address both the unavailability of H-1B nonimmigrant visas and mounting backlogs for employment based permanent residence preference categories, on October 31st the U.S. Senate began consideration of a proposal that would make significant changes to both programs and provide much-needed relief. The proposal originated with Senate Judiciary Committee, and is included as Title VIII in S.1932, an omnibus budget reconciliation bill.
Following are the important elements:
- Recapture of approximately 300,000 unused H-1B visas dating back to 1991, to be open for use in new petitions above the regular annual numerical cap at a rate of 30,000 per year.
- Immediate recapture of an estimated 90,000 unused employment based-visas from prior years.
- Exemption of spouses and minor children from counting against the annual employmentbased immigrant preference category numerical limits. Estimates are that this would increase the available employment-based immigrant visas by 80,000-90,000/year.
- Permit individuals to file applications for adjustment of status before an immigrant visa is actually available to them. Among other things, this would eliminate the need to apply for continuing H-1B extensions, permit immediate family members to obtain employment authorization, and help to address the issue of children “aging out”.
- In exchange for these benefits, the proposal would add certain new filing fees, including a $500 fee on employment-based preference petitions, a $500 fee on petitions for one of the “recaptured” H-1B visas, and a $750 fee on L-1 petitions.
The Senate will be debating S.1932 through at least the end of this week. After the bill passes the Senate it will go to a House-Senate conference committee to resolve differences with the House budget reconciliation bill, which does not contain helpful immigration provisions.