Anushka Mansharamani
The United States Senate passed the Fairness for High- Skilled Immigrants Act on 2nd December 2020 with a unanimous vote.
This Legislation passed raises the countries limits imposed on the annual grant of green cards in the US and this could benefit thousands of Indian-origin immigrants who face issues.
The bill passed had an older version that was passed by the House of Representatives in 2019. The two bills would now be compared, and a reconciliation process would take place.
The House of Representatives and the Senate would have to pass the combined legislation bill before sending it to the President for his approval.
The Indian American Lawmaker Raja Krishnamoorthi stated that “Ending nationality discrimination and levelling the playing field for high-skilled applicants, our legislation will keep families together while helping American companies retain top talent. I urge my colleagues and the President to take the final steps necessary to make these reforms a reality”.
The country has a 7% cap on the number of applicants from a specific country out of the 1 million green cards granted every year. India is the worst affected by this cap as there are more than 3,00,000 Indian applicants in the backlog but the bill passed by the Senate increases this limit to 15% and this could highly benefit the Indian immigrants and help ease up the backlog.
Therefore, if the bill is passed it could be a blessing for the Indian immigrants in the US.