U.S. Senate Passes S386- “Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act”

On December 2, the Senate passed a bill titled Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act (“S386”). The bill eliminates the 7% country cap for employment-based green card petitions. This will ease the extremely long backlogs that Indian and Chinese nationals currently are subject to. It also increases the per country cap for family-based petitions from 7% to 15%. The bill is significantly different from the counterpart bill (“HR1044”) passed by the House of Representatives in 2019. The House will now have to reconcile their bill HR 1044 with the Senate bill S386 before it can go to the President to be signed into law.

Additional components of the Senate bill include reforms to the Labor Condition Application (LCA) process used by the H-1B temporary visa program, which includes an online posting website, fees for LCAs, and restrictions on the number of H-1B nonimmigrants who can adjust to permanent residency each year. There are further restrictions in the bill prohibiting Chinese nationals affiliated with the Chinese military and the Chinese Communist Party from adjusting status or obtaining an Immigrant visa. It is unclear if these provisions will remain in a final bill.

Any updates on the House reconciliation bill will be posted.