Merit-based Immigration System – a New Era in American Histor

Immigrate to USA through Points Based Route, to Relish Green Card!

In yet another interesting political story, US House of Representatives has been introduced with Merit-based immigration system and hike the percentage of issuing Green Cards by 45 per year. This will be 50,000 more Green Cards annually for those seeking immigration to USA.

The general route perceived by immigrants to USA

The American red carpet starts and lures from the student level, when the student plans to Study Abroad in USA with master’s program and after successful completion of education, acquires job with H1-B work permit, which allows staying in USA filing an application for Green Card. Acquiring a Green Card allows an individual to enjoy the citizenship. In other words, all the benefits of the US citizens can be relished by Green Card holders. Even those who seek employment in on site companies of USA, while rendering their services acquire H1-B, which paves a way for Green Card and immigration to USA.

Securing America’s Future Act also benefits Indian professional Techies!

Though the Trump Government is pushing towards “Securing America’s Future Act” if signed plans to reduce the immigration levels from 1.05 million to 260,000 in a year, the bill also seeks to increase the issuance of Green Cards to an impressive 45%, which sure is a sweet News for Indian Techies. Because there are unofficially 5, 00,000 of Green Card applications pending which was believed to be only Indians and if all the applications were to be included it would out number 10,00,000. The Indian immigrants occupied 2^nd place as immigrants to USA, while Mexicans stand first. But those immigrants who are involved more in the professional fields such as automation, machine learning, science and technology, are mostly Indians.

If the Green Card issuing percentage is increased then the wait times for citizenship will be drastically reduced, and immigrants settle down faster and easier. Those who work as professionals, updating themselves with technology and meeting the market needs, getting along the flow, can anyhow be benefited because, America will never be ready to lose such professionals. Moreover USA is for a long time recently had been struggling with shortage of skilled workers and professional in various fields and issuing the Green Cards and inviting the immigrants to USA through points-based immigration system will potentially impact their economy positively.

H1-B work permit Visa process for USA

H1-B is a temporary work permit which allows the companies to hire workers from other nations and work in USA for a period of time. After the visa is expired the H1-B visa holders are allowed to apply for extensions if they have applied for Green Card, which allows them to stay back and work in USA. House Homeland Security Committee introduced the legislation regarding the points based immigration system in view of the benefits of Immigrants to USA as well as America.

Merit based immigration system to USA!

The points based immigration system, if the bill is signed by the House of Representatives and passed into law it takes a 5 year period for its enactment. Under this modernized immigration system, the foreign applicants are expected to acquire points, based on categories such as education, work experience, age, siblings or established connections in USA, country of origin, etc.

Immigrants to USA are being benefited!

Securing America’s Future’s Act will mostly benefit Indians, because those who seek Immigration to USA are highly qualified and skilled in different areas. But the Act eliminates other relative’s other than spouse and children from acquiring Green Card. This also gives room for temporary visa for parents and other relatives, to reunite families, without levying extra taxes.”This bill offers common-sense solutions that will finally secure our borders, better support our frontline defenders, strengthen interior enforcement, and get tough on those who break our immigration laws. With this the president at the helm, we have the opportunity to provide the security and rule of law our founding fathers intended,” said McCaul.

The legislation was said to be crafted for those abiding the law, and for those immigrants who seek to enter USA legally and also protects the interests of USA while contributing to US economy, and who can get a maximum score in the points based immigration to USA can be benefited through the program. Every bill and Act from the House of Representatives prioritizes the American people’s interests while culminating safety, security and modernization of America, which secures the generations to come.

USCIS to Resume Premium Processing of H1B Visas

The United States of America has announced on its USCIS website that it is resuming premium processing for H-1B non-immigrant visas for all categories. According to the update provided by USCIS on their website, the resumption would be subject to the existing 2018 caps on H1b visas for both the general category and cap-exempt category.  In addition to this, the USCIS had earlier resumed premium processing for petitions that were filed on behalf of physicians. It is to be noted that the premium processing would be applicable to only existing petitions and not new applications. Also, this service would not be extended to other categories of petitions such as the extension of stay for the present but may be introduced in the future if a requirement is found. In the meanwhile, however, they remain temporarily suspended.

 What is an H1b visa?

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that permits companies in the USA to employ workers from outside the US in certain occupations that require specialist skills and technical expertise.  The H1b Visa is popular among technology companies who depend on it to hire a huge number of employees every year. Premium processing of H1b visa allows a company that sponsors an H1b visa applicant to obtain a guarantee of 15 days processing time from USCIS on payment of additional premium processing fee. In case USCIS is unable to process the application in 15 days then the USCIS will refund the premium processing fee.

Debate on H1b visa program for Immigration.

The H1b visa has been in the limelight lately for the alleged misuse of the Visa Program by firms who are accused of using it as a means to hiring cheap labor. The program was first introduced with an intention of finding a lasting solution to the problem of a skilled labor shortage in America.  It allows US employers to sponsor a limited number of skilled workers from the outside USA. These positions are presumably vacant as no Citizen of USA is available to fill them. On the one hand, many opponents of the visa program have argued that the H1b Visas being miss-utilized by companies, who are using it as a backdoor to hiring Tech workers and other labor at lower wages from third world countries like India and China.

Many of the opponents are strong advocates of the rights of the American people to protect their jobs. This had led to Anti-Immigration stance among the government as well as a significant portion of the general public and had caused a number of petitions to be filed which would scale back or restrict the H1b Visa Program.

 Restrictions on Immigration

In March 2017, President Trump signed a number of executive orders restricting and adding more scrutiny to the H1b Visa Process.

New visa bills were also introduced in the senate, which sought to reduce the rate of acceptance for H1b visas and to place additional restrictions on employees who hire overseas talent through the H1b visa route. The bills which were named as ‘H1b Visa Reform Act of 2017’ and ‘Protection of Americans Jobs Act’ aimed to bring changes to the visa process.

Timing of Announcement to resume premium processing

The announcement comes five months after premium processing was suspended on a temporary basis in order to handle the huge number of applications. The news of the announcement which comes amidst debate on DACA act and the general atmosphere of heated debate on Immigration are expected to herald a more positive shift towards the acceptance of legal immigrants in the country.  Many in the USA now believe that legal immigration is to be encouraged as it provides an economic boost to many interiors towns and counties in the USA which benefit from the Influx of Immigrants.

The benefits of immigration

The benefits of Immigration though readily visible when concerning the immigrant himself, it is often not clearly visible when it comes to the country that the immigrant enters. Immigration however when pursued in the right manner, can have tremendous benefit to the host country as well. Most Immigrants to USA are highly vetted during the immigration process and are amongst the cream of the talent in their own countries. These immigrants are generally among the high-income earners and make significant contributions to the innovative atmosphere of United States as well as to the economy through their spending. Also many of the Immigrants who come through the visa program come with their families and join their children in the local schools. Many of them make contributions to the school PTA program and fund the schools where their children Study in various ways. All these have led to a softening of the stance on the part of the government, where Immigration to USA by legal means is concerned.

To know more about H1b Visa Program and how you can benefit from it contact Global Tree at Begum Pet – Hyderabad, the Most Trusted Immigration Consultant in India.