Senator Durbin announced on Dec 18 that he and Senator Lee have reached a bipartisan agreement on The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act (HR.1044 / S.386).
The current agreement amends the original bill with provisions that temporarily alleviate and deal with the consequences of S.386/HR.1044 for high-skilled immigrants from all over the world. However, no agreement was reached on the real solution to the backlog which is adding immigration visas for high-skilled immigrants, similar to Senator Durbin’s RELIEF Act. Here is a summary of the new language of the proposed bill:
- The per-country cap will be repealed from Oct 1,2020
- Similar to the previous versions, it guarantees availability of green cards for those with an approved immigration petition (I-140) prior to the enactment of the bill.
- Beneficiaries of approved employment-based immigration petitions may file the adjustment of status early ( even if visa numbers are not available) within a 9-year period and receive work authorization and travel documents.
- Employers whose combined H1B and L1 employees exceed 50 percent of the total number of employees will not be able to sponsor for H1B workers.
The new language of the bill under the current Durbin-Lee agreement can be found here. Although these amendments aim to alleviate the devastating consequences of S.386 bill, this bill is still a zero-sum solution to the employment-based backlog problem. And as Senator Durbin explained, Congress ultimately must increase the number of green cards to eliminate the green-card backlog.