Indians can get permanent residency easily in the US, if the Senate clears the Bill

• The United States of America (USA) has passed a bill which will help Indian technology professionals get permanent residency soon.
  
• The bill could help many of the 300,000 Indian H1-B temporary work visa holders now in the US and in various stages of the green card process.
  
• It will allow up to 85% of green cards to be given to Indians and Chinese in the first two years and 90% in the third year, to clear the backlog.

In a rare good news, the United States of America (USA) has passed a bill which will help Indian technology professionals get permanent residency soon. But the US house has been facing backslash in the Senate, which could block it from becoming a law.

This bill, which is sponsored by 311 representatives, will do away with the cap on the number of green cards given out for citizenship. This can open doors to qualified applicants from India and China.

The bill could help many of the 300,000 Indian H1-B temporary work visa holders now in the US and in various stages of the green card process. Of the 85,000 H1-B visas that are granted every year, nearly 70% are for Indians.

Under the current system, there is a cap on the maximum number of green cards that can be granted to people from any country, whether it is as large as India and China or as small as Maldives and Luxembourg. This is at 7% of the total, which is about 26,000 per annum.

This quota affects Indian technology professionals and other highly qualified people who have to wait of 10 years. During the time those who are already in the US on temporary H1-B work visas face uncertainty about their future prospects.

If passed, the bill can bring cheer to Indian companies which have been facing visa rejections. According to the US think-tank Centre for Immigration Studies, top IT firms Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Cognizant and Infosys faced the most rejections in extension of H1-B work visas.

Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019

The bill, officially known as Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019, seeks to eliminate the cap.

It will allow up to 85% of green cards to be given to Indians and Chinese in the first two years and 90% in the third year, to clear the backlog. After that, the backlogs are unlikely to build up unless there is a comprehensive immigration reform.

The bill received the votes of 224 Democrats and 140 Republicans. However, it was opposed by both the extreme left and the right.

Two important leftist members, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, were among the eight Democrats who voted against it. On the Republican side, 57 voted against it.

With inputs from IANS