Indians aspiring to win themselves a much-coveted US Green Card facilitating permanent residency were given a fresh dose of hope following the publishing of a new piece of proposed legislation – the Reconciliation Bill – in the US.
According to portions in the Bill, the Indian diaspora would be able to effectively jump the queue if they dished out a supplemental fee – also known as a ‘super fee’ – to expedite the processing of their applications.
A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document given to immigrants serving as proof that its owner has been granted the right to live permanently in the US. But there is a catch.
The US has a country-wise cap (seven per cent per country) on Green Cards which is to say that, every year, these cards will only be given out to a fixed number of Indians. According to some estimates, with so many Indians already having applied for Green Cards, the backlog has risen to over 80 years. Some lawmakers have remarked that around 200,000 Indians would then likely die before they gain lawful permanent resident status.
Green Cards are viewed as the next logical step from an H-1B visa – a non-immigrant visa that permits US-based companies to bring on foreign workers in highly specialised occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Over the years, the visa has been used as a key instrument for technology companies in the US to attract thousands of skilled foreign workers, most notably from India and China.
In June last year, the USCIS, in a first, revealed that an estimated 583,420 H-1B visa holders resided in the US as of September 2019. It also noted that 96,798 H-1B visa holders had transitioned to permanent resident status by the end of the financial year 2019.
Every year, the US issues some 85,000 new H-1B visas, along with renewing those that may have expired. The visa carries a term of three years with Indians, in recent years, accounting for 70 per cent of all such visas issued.
How will the new scheme work?
Firstly, it is important to remember that the proposed Bill will have to pass the Judiciary Committee, the House of Representatives and the Senate before becoming law.
However, if it does, any employment-based immigrant applicant with a “priority date that is more than two years before can adjust to permanent residence without numerical limits by paying a supplemental fee of $5,000.” Moreover, a family-based immigrant, sponsored by a US citizen, and who has a “priority date that is more than two years before,” will need to shell out $2,500 for a Green Card.
The fee is set at $1,500 for an applicant whose priority date is not within two years, however, they must reside within the country, says the committee print. According to some reports, the proposed legislation will also help ‘legal dreamers – children belonging to H-1B visa holders who have aged out or are expected to age out – to also secure permanent residency.
