On July 10, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 (H.R. 1044), which proposes to eliminate the per-country limit for all employment-based immigrants and increase the per-country limit for all family-sponsored immigrants from 7 percent to 15 percent.
It is important to note that this bill is not currently law, nor may it ever become law. More specifically, the approval of the bill by the House of Representatives is merely the first phase of a three-part process. To become law, H.R. 1044 must now be approved by the U.S. Senate and then subsequently signed into law by the President. Not only is there a chance that the bill never makes it out of the Senate, but it is far from being a certainty that the President will sign the bill into law. It is also worth noting that this process will take some time.
If H.R. 1044 does become law, then all Green Card applications will be put into a single pool without restrictions. This will likely create a significant backlog and delay Green Card applications for all individuals, regardless of their home country.
While H.R. 1044 is not currently law, and may never become law, we are recommending to all of our clients that it is prudent to move forward with their Green Card application to establish a priority date and in hopes of the application being approved prior to H.R. 1044 potentially taking effect, which could possibly significantly delay the application.
If you have any questions or concerns or would like to inquire about initiating the Green Card process, please contact the Arkell Immigration Team at Dunn Law Firm by clicking here.
