CIR Bill

Former INS Attorney Carl Shusterman (1976-82) explains the proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill.  Schedule a legal consultation (by Skype, telephone or in person) at https://shusterman.com/intake-secure.html.

The Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill passed by the US Senate in 2013 offers a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, mandatory employment verification, border security, entry and exit systems, and visas for both low and high-skilled workers.

Some of the more significant changes proposed in the bill are to the family-based (FB) and employment-based (EB) immigration systems. For both systems, one major step toward eliminating backlogs would be to recapture unused visa numbers from 1992-2013 to be added to the numbers available for fiscal year 2015.

While the bill would decrease the number of FB green cards available annually in the preference categories from 226,000 to 161,000, the immediate relative category would be expanded to include spouses and children of permanent residents. Also, for the first time, the bill would permit derivative beneficiaries of immediate relatives to immigrate along with the principal beneficiaries. New visa petitions for the F4 category for siblings of U.S. citizens would be phased-out after 18 months. F3 numbers would be limited to married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens 30 years old or younger.  CSPA would be amended to provide that aged-out beneficiaries would retain their priority dates. Per-country quotas would be increased from 7% to 15%, further helping to reduce waiting times, especially for persons born in Mexico and the Philippines.

For the EB system, the bill would eliminate the 7% per-country quotas, excellent news for high-skilled workers from India and China. It would also eliminate quotas for spouses and children of EB workers, persons in the EB-1 categories, low-skilled workers in the EB-3 category, individuals with doctorate degrees, and STEM graduates. STEM graduates would also be eligible to apply for National Interest Waivers and to skip the PERM process. Another big change would be the removal of the Diversity Visa Lottery, freeing up additional EB numbers.

Helping foreign-born physicians, the bill would make the Conrad 30 program permanent and make both J and F visas dual intent visas, similar to H-1B and L-1 visas. The bill would also increase the number of H-1B visas to 115,000-180,000, depending on demand. Spouses of H-1B visa-holders would now also be able to apply for work permits.  The bill would reinstate visa revalidation in the U.S., allowing non-immigrant visa holders to get a new visa without having to return to their home countries.

For more information please visit our Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill page at http://shusterman.com/immigrationreform2013.html