Hot Topics in Immigration Reform

1
Hot Topics in Immigration Reform

• Immigration Attorney
• Carl Shusterman

2
Proposed Immigration Reform Bill (S.774)

• Passed by the Senate on June 29
• What will happen in the House?
• No single bill as yet
• Forcing a Vote?
• Discharge Petition?

3
Legalization

• Entered U.S. before 12/31/2011
• Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI)
• Pay a penalty, back taxes
• Receive work authorization
• May travel abroad
• LPR after 10 years
• Citizen after 3 more years
• Generous provisions for DREAMers, agricultural
  workers

4
Family-Based System

• Move FB-2A into immediate relative category
• Allow for derivatives of immediate relatives
• Eliminate the FB-4 category
• Married children of U.S. citizens eligible until
  31
• Return of the V visa

5
Employment-Based System

• Exempt from quotas
• EB-1 immigrants
• Doctoral degree holders,
• Physicians who have completed the foreign
  residency requirement
• Derivatives
• EB-6 category for certain start-up investors

6
Temporary Workers

• W-1 visa for lesser-skilled workers
• W-2 visa for contract-based workers
• W-3 visa for "at-will" E-B workers
• W-2/W-3 visas to replace H-2A program

7
Asylum

• Eliminate the one-year filing deadline
• Authorize asylum officers to grant asylum during
  credible fear interviews

8
Mandatory E-Verify

• All employers to be on the system after 5 years
• Biometric Work Authorization Card
• Biometric Green Card

9
H-1B Visas

• Increase general cap to 110,000. 180,000 max
• Raise advanced degree cap to 25,000
• Limited to STEM grads
• Recruitment requirement for all H-1B LCAs
• EADs for spouses
• 60-day grace period after H-1B job termination

10
Fraud

• Crime to knowingly defraud an immigrant or
  falsely claim to be an attorney or accredited
  representative
• ID required for individuals helping immigrants
  with their forms
• Attorney General to prosecute fraudulent
  "immigration service providers" at federal level