In 2023, only 48% of employment-based Green Cards were issued to workers, while 52% were given to their family members. (Bloomberg)
United States of America remains the first choice for many foreigners including entrepreneurs to live and work in US. The US immigration law provides foreigners with a variety of ways to become lawful permanent residents and get an American Green Card through employment in the United States. There are specific employment-based (EB) categories for immigrants to apply for visas to live and work in the US.
With the Trump administration poised to take over, US immigration rules and their influence on the American economy have come to the forefront.
Owner of X and Tesla and the co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk has been instrumental in TrumpтАЩs win for the Presidential post in 2024.
In an earlier X post, Elon wrote тАУ The legal immigration process in America needs to be greatly streamlined and expanded, while illegal should be shut down. If someone is talented, hard-working and honest, they are an asset to the country.тАЭ
Bill Ackman, a billionaire investor echoes MuskтАЩs view. In an X post, Bill wrote (excerpt) тАУ The problem with our immigration system is that it takes years for the talented, hard-working, successful, law-abiding immigrants to get in. Imagine if we could vet applicants who wanted to bring their talents and resources here in a 45-60 day process as long as they met certain standards for excellence and character.тАЭ
Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at The Cato Institute conducted an in-depth study on employment-based Green Cards for immigrants.
Alex is of the view that Musk and Ackman have emphasized how expanding legal immigration for skilled, entrepreneurial, and ambitious people would be a great boon to the United States.
According to Alex, the Trump administration should listen to Musk and Ackman on the benefits of expanding skilled immigration to the United States.
But, according to Alex there is a problem with the current employment-based (EB) green card system for skilled workers and it needs immediate attention.
Here are a few excerpts from his report:
Instead of a separate green card category for the spouses and children of workers, those family members get a green card that would otherwise have gone to a skilled worker. The allocation of green cards to the immediate family members of skilled immigrants wouldnтАЩt be a problem if the number of EB green cards were uncapped, but Congress did limit them.
Ideally, Congress should abolish the cap, but a more palatable reform would be to allocate EB green cards to workers without reducing family-based immigration.
In 2023, 52 percent of EB green cards went to the family members of workers. The workers themselves received the other 48 percent.
Those percentages were similar to 2020, 2021, and 2022. Some of those family members who received EB green cards are workers, and many are highly skilled since skilled people tend to marry other skilled people, so this isnтАЩt a neat de facto division. Many of the family members of skilled workers are skilled workers themselves or will be when they grow up.
Another thing to note is that Congress capped the EB green card category at 140,000 per year, but the federal government issued 196,720 in 2022. The government was able to issue more EB green cards because immigration law allows unused green cards in other categories to be used for immigrants who have applied for EBs. Unused family-based green cards from 2021 were reallocated to adjust the statuses of EB green card applicants already in the United States on other visas in 2022 when 270,284 EB green cards were approved. This process allocated almost 60,000 additional green cards from the family based to the EB green card categories in 2023.
To ensure that family-based immigration is not hindered by the numerical cap of EB green cards, Congress should either exempt family members or create a new green card category for them. This will prevent the reduction of workers by the same number of family members. By doing so, an additional 101,740 immigrant workers could have earned a green card in 2023, which would have resulted in a 107 percent increase without adjusting the cap number for that green card category.
Alex presents some exemption options for increasing the number of EB green cards issued annually without raising the overall numerical cap:
- Workers should be exempted from the EB green card cap if they have a higher level of education, like a graduate degree or a PhD.
- Workers should be exempted from the cap if they have a graduate degree or a PhD in particular fields, such as science,┬аtechnology, engineering, mathematics, or medicine.
- Some workers who adjust their status should be exempted from the numerical cap in the way the HтАС1B visa exempts 20,000 graduates of American universities from that visaтАЩs numerical cap. Exempting all workers who earned their degrees at US universities is a good start.
- Workers who have wage offers in the top 10 percent of wages in their occupation, or in the top 5 percent of wages nationally, should be exempted from the cap. These workers are extremely productive, thereтАЩs no sense in making them wait longer.
- Workers should be exempted if they show five or more years of legal employment in the United States prior to obtaining their green card.
- Workers should be exempted from the cap if they have waited for five years and are otherwise eligible for a green card.
- Anybody who has legally resided in the United States for a decade or more should be exempted from the cap. This would benefit many workers who started as students and then became temporary students, as well as the legal dreamers who grew up as dependents of temporary workers but who lost their status at age 21.
aniltikotekar4sme.com 