Three bills introduced in the House addressing changes to the EB Greencard System

U.S. employers, education institutions, and trade associations have signed on to show their support for three bills introduced into the House of Representative which they believe will address the many shortcomings in the employment based green card system. The three bills include: H.R. 6039, which aims to exempt highly educated, foreign-born students earning an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics from a U.S. university from the annual EB green card limit. This change would help U.S. employers retain talented individuals in the U.S. workforce. In the U.S. foreign nationals comprise of nearly half of the master’s and 70 percent of the Ph.D.s in electrical engineering from U.S. universities. H.R. 5921 will help put an end to multi-year wait times by eliminating unduly restrictive per country limits on EB green cards; and finally H.R. 5882 will try to help reduce visa backlogs by “recapturing” EB green cards from prior years that went unused due to government processing delays and making them available immediately to those who meet the requirements.