The amendments, moved by Senator Orrin Hatch, aims to eliminate annual per-country limits for employment-based green cards so that applicants from more populous countries are not unfairly discriminated against relative to applicants from less populous countries.
"I have long said, high-skilled immigration is merit-based immigration," Hatch said after moving the amendments yesterday.
It increases worker mobility for individuals on the path to a green card by enabling such individuals to change jobs earlier in the process without losing their place in the green card line.
The amendments exempt holders of US master's degrees or higher who are being sponsored for green cards from the annual numerical limitations on H1B visas and subjects employers who fail to employ an H1B worker for more than three months during the individual's first year of work authorisation to a penalty.
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Also, it further updates 1998 law exempting H1B dependent employers from certain recruitment and non-displacement requirements.
In particular, the amendment raises from USD 60,000 to USD 100,000 the H1B salary level at which the salary-based exemption takes effect, narrows education-based exemption to H1B hires with a US PhD, and eliminates exemption for "super-dependent" employers altogether.
"In particular, they will help streamline the process by which a worker with in-demand technical skills can obtain a green card and will cut back on some of the troubling abuses we have seen with the H-1B programme. These are important reforms that can attract broad support, and I intend to pursue every opportunity to include them in the pending immigration bill," the lawmaker said.
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