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This bill — the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 — would eliminate per-country percentage caps in the employment-based green card system and increase the per-country numerical limitation for family-based immigrants from 7% to 15% of the total number of family-sponsored visas. Under current law, the per country caps have created a backlog of would-be immigrants from more populous countries. This bill would also remove an offset that reduces the number of visas for individuals from China.

This bill would be phased in as follows:

FY 2020: 15% of immigrant visas would be allotted to immigrants who are natives of foreign states or dependent areas that aren’t one of the two countries with the largest aggregate numbers of natives obtaining immigrant visas; and
FY 2021 & FY 2022: 10% of immigrant visas would be allotted to immigrants who are natives of foreign states or dependent areas that aren’t one of the two countries with the largest aggregate numbers of natives obtaining immigrant visas.

This bill would also establish transition rules for employment-based visa from FY2020-FY2022, reserving a percentage of EB-2 (workers with advanced degrees or exceptional ability) and EB-3 (skilled and other workers) visas for individuals not from the two countries with the largest numbers of recipients of such visas. Of the unreserved visas, no more than 85% would be allotted to immigrants from any single country. If the application of the rules in this bill would prevent the total number of immigrant visas made available to be less than the maximum allowed under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the additional visas could be issued during the remainder of the fiscal year without regard to the rules set forth in this bill.

This bill would set-aside green cards for immigrants who aren’t in the backlog for three years to ensure that they can continue to enter the U.S. as backlog petitions are processed. It would also include a “do no harm” provision to ensure that every person currently in line for a green card has the same or better wait time after this bill is passed

An amendment to this bill would add three new protections for American workers in how H-1B visas are processed:

Strengthen the Department of Labor’s ability to investigate and enforce labor condition application requirements;
Reform the labor condition application process to ensure complete and adequate disclosure of information regarding the employer’s H-1B hiring practices; and
Close loopholes by which employers can circumvent the annual cap on H-1B workers.

This bill would not change the number of employment-based visas issued each year.

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Should Per-Country Immigration Limits Be Lifted?