Senators Unveil Comprehensive Immigration Reform Plan
April 18, 2013
A bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators unveiled a comprehensive immigration reform proposal on Wednesday that would expand visas for highly educated workers and provide an expedited pathway to citizenship for undocumented students who were brought to the U.S. as children, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The “Gang of Eight” plan, which would tackle border security as well as legalization, would also drop limits on the number of employment-based green cards granted to individuals with doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, as well as “outstanding professors and researchers” and “aliens of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, professions, or business.”
The proposal would raise the cap on H-1B temporary work visas, from 65,000 to 110,000, and set aside 40 percent of that total for workers with advanced degrees and individuals who had earned advanced degrees in STEM fields from American institutions within the previous five years, the Chronicle reported. An additional 25,000 visas would go to individuals with advanced degrees in the STEM fields ” an increase from the current 20,000 exemption for all advanced-degree holders.
Under the plan, students applying for visas to attend an American institution would no longer have to prove that they would leave the country after graduation ” a concept known as “intent to return.” Instead, all foreign students would be granted “dual intent” visas.
Related Links:
Outline of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013
The Chronicle of Higher Education
https://chronicle.com/article/Immigration-Bill-Would-Ease/138557/?cid=at
Michelle Cormier Mott
share