A group of US lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to take executive action to introduce priority dates for India’s green card applicants to reduce the 195-year waiting period that leaves them in the dark. sure.
Led by Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi and Larry Bucshon, the bipartisan group of 56 lawmakers sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas asking the administration to take executive action to resolve the issue. holders of skilled visas. .
In their letter, the US lawmakers also urged the administration to mark as “current” all employment-based visa application dates in the Employment-Based Visa Bulletin issued by the Bureau of Consular Affairs. copy. .
A green card, officially known as a permanent resident card, is a document issued to an immigrant to the United States to demonstrate that its bearer has been granted the privilege of permanent residence. “The current situation around the 7% per-country cap on employment-based green card allocations has serious implications, especially for countries like India, where the backlog has reached a staggering 195 years,” the Foundation for Indian Studies and Indian Communities (FIIDS USA) said in a separate appeal to US President Joe Biden. “This backlog disproportionately affects Indian tech professionals, who make up a significant portion of the highly skilled STEM talent and US-trained graduates who play the role,” he said. important role in maintaining the United States’ competitive advantage in technology industries. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
However, the backlog of work has created a significant barrier, preventing these talented people from making meaningful contributions to the country’s development and innovation, FIIDS commented. This year, FIIDS has made several efforts to address the concerns of the Indian immigrant community, particularly those related to Green Cards and H-1B visas. “We have started our relief efforts for H-1B Indians who are having difficulty in green card processing. We have started petitioning for change, reaching out to representatives, many organizations. We are contacting the Department of State Consular Services, as well as USCIS of DHS taking administrative action to ensure priority dates are applied to card applicants. green,” said Khanderao Kand of FIIDS.
The H-1B visa is a nonimmigrant visa that allows U.S. businesses to employ foreign workers in specialized occupations that require academic or technical expertise. Tech companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year in countries like India and China. In their letter, the lawmakers said marking all dates as “current” would allow employment-based applications to be filed regardless of the applicant’s country-based priority date. “It will help thousands of people who are trying to navigate the US immigration system legally, and may also get some people eligible for work permits to change jobs, start businesses,” he said. and travel abroad to visit their families without penalty,” he said.
Without this administrative action, which was also used during the administration of former President George W Bush, individuals are always in a state of uncertainty and, in some cases, punished for using take the legal path of immigration by being forced to stay with a business or organization because of their green card status, they said in the letter.
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said: “I am proud to join my colleagues in urging the Biden administration to address the bureaucratic lags in the legal immigration system that are holding back our economy while making so many people Many families are at a standstill.” “By using its authority under applicable law, the government can ease this burden while strengthening our economy and helping create jobs,” he said.
Unfortunately, due to the bureaucracy in “our country’s legal immigration system, they are stuck in a visa backlog and have no chance to change jobs, into a new job,” said Congressman Bucshon. start a business and travel abroad without penalty”. “I believe it is important for the administration to act in accordance with applicable law to make it easier for these legal immigrants to navigate our immigration system and continue to make a positive contribution to the country and the economy. our economy,” Bucshon said. Voice of Immigrants Chairman Aman Kapoor said “this sensible measure proposed in the letter by Representatives Krishnamoorthi and Bucshon will be a complete game changer for ensuring basic human rights such as the ability to job-changing and commuting capacity for nearly one million skilled immigrants whose status in the United States could end at any time and at the sole discretion of his employer.”
The whole basis of this problem is a “discriminatory” immigration system that forces Indian citizens to wait “200 years for a green card while people from 150 other countries don’t have to wait,” Kapoor said. speak.
“We now urge the Biden administration to do the right thing and heed the call of this rare bipartisan letter and give the skilled immigrants here for more than a decade equal rights. about work and travel compared to those on parole in the United States for the first time in the amount of time I have this week,” he said. equal to no one else and we hope the Biden administration agrees,” Kapoor said.
