{"id":742,"date":"2022-12-15T00:16:56","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T00:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/?p=742"},"modified":"2022-12-15T00:16:56","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T00:16:56","slug":"eagle-act-aims-to-spread-the-burden-of-immigrant-visa-backlogs-it-does-not-address-underlying-visa-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/eagle-act-aims-to-spread-the-burden-of-immigrant-visa-backlogs-it-does-not-address-underlying-visa-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"EAGLE Act aims to spread the burden of immigrant visa backlogs: it does not address underlying visa problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

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EAGLE Act of 2022 does little to address the underlying problem in employment-based immigration.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Many immigrants to the United States face multi-year delays in receiving employment-based green cards due to \u201cper country caps\u201d on the number of visas allocated each year.\u00a0 A proposed law, known as the EAGLE Act of 2022<\/a>, aims to reduce these backlogs by eliminating the current country caps.\u00a0 However, without addressing the underlying need to increase the total number of available visas, adjusting the method of allocation may only shift the burden from one group of immigrants to everyone.<\/p>\n

The employment-based Green Card system provides a route to permanent residence to individuals who add value to the US economy.\u00a0 Currently there is a 7% per country cap.\u00a0 This means that of all the available employment-based visas, no more than 7% may be allocated to immigrants from the same country of origin.\u00a0 In practice, this hits immigrants from China and India particularly hard as these countries account for a combined 40% of the world\u2019s population and a majority of the employment-based visa applicants in the US.\u00a0 Immigrants from China and India who have the same qualifications as someone from another less populous country must wait longer because the 7% cap \u2013 the EAGLE Act means to address this disparity, on the basis that an individual\u2019s qualifications should be more important than their country of origin.<\/p>\n

While the EAGLE Act may reduce the wait for a visa for immigrants from some countries on the short term, it could create backlogs for everyone on the long run.\u00a0 Under the EAGLE Act, immigrants from India or China will face reduced backlogs.\u00a0 At the same time, an individual coming from a less represented country, such as many immigrants from African nations, will now face a visa backlog when previously there was no wait.\u00a0 In this sense, immigrants from underrepresented countries will actually move backwards with the passage of the EAGLE Act.<\/p>\n

Per country caps were initially implemented to ensure that no singular country accounted for all the visa recipients.\u00a0 The EAGLE Act changes are currently set to take effect over a nine-year transition period in order to reduce the risk of all the visas being allocated to applicants from one or two countries and ensure that skilled immigrants from non-backlogged countries who are currently in line are not adversely impacted.\u00a0 After the transition period, visas will be given out on a first come, first serve basis.<\/p>\n

The EAGLE Act also aims to address other related issues in the employment visa system such as: allowing individuals who have been waiting in the immigrant visa backlog for two years to file their green card applications and get in the queue even if a visa is not yet available; protecting eligibility of children of employment-based immigrants; and improving aspects of the H-1B specialty occupation visa program.<\/p>\n

While the EAGLE Act does help immigrants, it does so to the detriment of others and does not address the underlying issue \u2013 there are not enough visas for workers from around the world wanting to immigrate to the United States. There should not be artificial limits on the who should get the employment-based visa; the documented needs of the employer, inability to get U.S. workers and the ability to pay the prevailing wage should dictate who gets the visa.\u00a0 The migration landscape today is different from what it was when those limits were set; and looking into the future, it will be radically different. Congress and the White House must be brave to lead the country into the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EAGLE Act of 2022 does little to address the underlying problem in employment-based immigration. Many immigrants to the United States face multi-year delays in receiving employment-based green cards due to \u201cper country caps\u201d on the number of visas allocated each year.\u00a0 A proposed law, known as the EAGLE Act of 2022, aims to reduce these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-immigration"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749,"href":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742\/revisions\/749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paschal-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}