The House of Representatives on November 29, 2011 passed new legislation to increase the number of highly skilled Indian and Chinese immigrants admitted to the U.S. by almost double the number previously granted. Liberals and Conservatives in Congress have agreed on a non-partisan bill to make the U.S. more globally competitive by making work visas more available for highly skilled professionals who have advanced degrees in technology and science. This bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 385 for and only 15 opposed. This means the bill should easily pass in the Senate and of a certainty the President will sign the bill. The bill ends the system of countries having no more than a limited number of visas available in any one category. China and India have vastly outnumbered their country’s quota limitation because of the technological expertise of the Chinese and Indians and because of the huge populations of these countries. Now these visas will be available on a first come first served basis regardless of national origin. As one of the proponents of the bill has said: “Why should American players who seek green cards for skilled foreign workers have to wait longer just because the workers are from India or Chinaâ€. This will increase our competitiveness and be a stimulus to our economy because the Chinese and Indian professionally skilled workers will almost double here with this improved system, and we will benefit from their skill and education.
This new law also will almost double the number of green cards issued to close family members of Americans from Mexico and the Philippines. The number of visas available to these two countries for close family members of U.S. citizens now has been oversubscribed so that Mexican and Philippine close family members of U.S. citizens had to expect huge delays to come to the U.S. This new law will definitely reduce the backlog for these two countries’ nationals because the number of admissions will double for Mexican and Philippine nationals.
