On July 10, the US House of Representatives passed the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 bill to eliminate the annual per-country cap on employment-based immigrant visas.
Currently, no more than 7% of all green cards can be issued to natives of one country in a fiscal year. A Green Card allows a non-US citizen to live and work permanently in America.
The bill, when signed into law, increases the per-country cap on family-based immigrant visas from seven per cent of the total number of such visas available that year to 15 per cent and eliminates the seven per cent cap for employment-based immigrant visas.
This is especially good news for Silicon Valley, where around seven in 10 workers are foreign-born. With the limit abolished, Indians, the largest cohort of the H-1B visa recipients with green card wait times ranging between a long 12 and an aggravating 150 years, stand to reap the biggest benefits.It also removes an offset that reduced the number of visas for individuals from China. The bill, however, has to be passed by the Senate, wherein the Republicans enjoy a majority, before it can be signed into law by President Donald Trump.
