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发帖数: 114 | 1 B. Employment-Based Immigrant Visa Issuance
Many temporary nonimmigrant workers with approved employment-based immigrant
visa petitions wait years for visa numbers to become available so that they
may acquire LPR status—in large part due to statutory caps that have not
changed since 1990 and that no longer reflect the needs of U.S. businesses
and the U.S. economy. While waiting for these immigrant visas, many
nonimmigrant workers may be effectively prevented from changing jobs or
receiving promotions, thus hindering natural career progression and the
ability to make other long-term life plans. This stagnancy for years on end
not only negatively impacts the beneficiary’s economic stability, but also
impacts the economic growth of local communities and our nation. While
changing statutory caps requires legislation, other improvements can be made
under current law to facilitate worker mobility and ensure that the maximum
number of visas is issued each year.
The recommendations below will help ensure that all immigrant visas
authorized by Congress are issued when there is sufficient demand; better
account for visa availability for persons seeking to adjust status to lawful
permanent residence while remaining in the United States; and provide
additional job flexibility and portability for nonimmigrant workers affected
by immigrant visa backlogs. Implementation of these recommendations will
also benefit some family-sponsored immigrants who are waiting for visas. To
these ends, the following recommendations will be implemented:
Recommendation 1: Update the monthly Visa Bulletin. Later this year, State,
in consultation with DHS, will revise the monthly Visa Bulletin to better
estimate immigrant visa availability for prospective applicants, providing
needed predictability to nonimmigrant workers seeking permanent residency.
The revisions will help ensure that the maximum number of available visas is
issued every year, while also minimizing the potential for visa
retrogression.26 These changes will further allow more individuals seeking
LPR status to work, change jobs, and accept promotions. By increasing
efficiency in visa issuance, individuals and their families who are already
on the path to becoming LPRs will have increased security that they can stay
in the United States, set down roots, and more confidently seek out
opportunities to build lives in our country.
Recommendation 2: Refine monthly allocation of visas. State will increase
monthly visa allocation totals during the first three quarters of the fiscal
year to the degree permitted by law in order to ensure that fewer numbers
are left for the final quarter, thereby ensuring that visa numbers issued
are as closely aligned with statutory mandates as possible.
26 Visa retrogression refers to the act of moving priority dates backward (
rather than advancing them) in the State Department Visa Bulletin to
foreclose the ability of certain individuals to file immigrant visa
applications or applications for adjustment of status. Visa retrogression
may occur when State determines that heavy demand in a visa category causes
the estimate of the availability date to move backwards. 29
Recommendation 3: Improve numerically controlled immigrant visa appointments
. State’s National Visa Center will alter how numerically controlled
immigrant visa appointments are scheduled for the last month of the fiscal
year (September) to provide sufficient time to evaluate whether there may be
potentially unused numbers. This change will allow for the scheduling of
additional cases when necessary in order to maximize the numbers of visas
used, consistent with the annual limits.
Recommendation 4: Clarify and expand protections for employment-based
immigrants and nonimmigrants. DHS intends to publish a regulation clarifying
and expanding on the protections afforded employment-based immigrants and
nonimmigrants under the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century
Act of 2000 (“AC-21”), which was meant to increase job flexibility for
individuals who were coming to the United States to perform specialty
occupation services (H-1B) and those on the pathway to permanent residency.
This regulation will:
• Increase the ability of workers waiting for a green card to change
jobs or receive promotions by clarifying when individuals may change jobs or
employers because such employment is “same or similar” to the job that
was the original basis for permanent residency;
• Further increase job flexibility by enabling individuals whose
employment-sponsored immigrant visa petitions have been approved for more
than one year to retain eligibility for LPR status despite the petitioning
employer closing its business or seeking to withdraw the approved petition;
• Provide increased guidance on job flexibility provisions for H-1B
workers seeking other H-1B |
