US lawmakers seek support for including employment-based Green Card backlog as part of budget reconciliation

US Congressmen, including Indian-American Raja Krishnamoorthi on Monday, asked their Congressional colleagues to extend support for addressing employment-based Green Card backlog as part of the budget reconciliation.

According to the PTI, the move, if included in the reconciliation package and passed into law would help thousands of Indian IT professionals who are currently stuck in agonizing Green Card backlog.

“It is imperative any immigration package include provisions to address the employment-based Green Card backlog, which is damaging American competitiveness and abandoning 1.2 million people to perpetual non immigrant status,” Krishnamoorthi said, according to the PTI.

He urged his Congressional colleagues and urged to join him in sending a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the need to address the employment-based Green Card backlog as part of budget reconciliation, the report said.

“I call on my colleagues to immediately raise this important issue with leadership and ensure that relief for backlogged high-skilled workers is included in the final package. Our economic recovery from COVID-19 depends on it,” he said.

He was joined by several other lawmakers in making such an appeal.

“This is because there is effectively a Green Card ban on high-skilled immigrants from India, China, and other countries with large populations of workers eager to remain in America and power forward our economy and social safety net programs for generations to come,” the letter said.

“Right now, no more than seven percent of employment-based green cards are available to individuals from a single country, which has created a decades-long backlog for would-be immigrants from India and China. Indian nationals face a particularly daunting backlog of 80 years, and an anticipated 200,000 will die before achieving lawful permanent resident status,” it said.

This arbitrary cap is keeping some of the world’s most talented individuals from permanently calling America home, encouraging them to take their inventions, expertise, and creativity to other countries instead.

Most workers in the employment-based Green Card backlog are already in the United States on temporary non immigrant visas, such as the H-1B visa for workers in specialty occupations, that are renewable but greatly restrict beneficiaries from reaching their full potential.

H-1B holders are unable to change jobs or start their own businesses – despite the fact that they have been shown to boost overall productivity, wages, and new patents, the letter said.

“The temporary nature of the H-1B visa forces beneficiaries to live in a constant state of uncertainty, preventing them from becoming entrepreneurs, buying homes, employing more Americans, or otherwise fully establishing themselves as permanent fixtures within the American economy,” said the letter.

“This can and must be addressed in the budget reconciliation package currently under negotiation,” the letter said.