新闻来八一八吧 Highly Skilled May Wait Less for Visas# Immigration - 落地生根
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/us/green-card-backlog-may-eas
om-china-and-india.html?_r=2&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
In a rare show of bipartisan comity on the angrily contested issue of immigr
ation, the House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill that tweaks the
visa system to allow more highly skilled immigrants from India and China to
become legal permanent residents.
The bill, originally offered by Representatives Jason Chaffetz, a conservati
ve Republican from Utah, and Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and chairman of
the House Judiciary Committee, sailed through by a vote of 389 to 15. Joini
ng as sponsors were several Democrats who are outspoken liberals on immigrat
ion, including Representatives Luis V. Gutierrez of Illinois and Zoe Lofgren
of California.
Mr. Chaffetz said he had tried to find a sweet spot, even if small, where la
wmakers from both parties could come together to fix the legal immigration s
ystem, which is widely acknowledged to be broken. The bill does not address
illegal immigration, nor does it add any new visas to the system, which many
Republicans, including Mr. Smith, are reluctant to do.
“I campaigned in Utah on the idea that we can never solve our illegal immig
ration woes without fixing legal immigration,” Mr. Chaffetz said Tuesday.
The bill seemed likely to pass easily in the Senate, said Senator Charles E.
Schumer of New York, a leading Democrat on immigration.
Its main impact will be to reduce visa backlogs that meant, for example, tha
t some Indians with science or technology skills who were approved recently
for permanent resident visas, known as green cards, would face waits of 70 y
ears before they would actually receive the documents.
The bill eliminates limits on the number of green cards based on employment
that is available annually to each country. Currently, 140,000 green cards a
re available each year for immigrants based on their job skills, with each c
ountry limited to 7 percent of those visas. Under the bill, after a three-ye
ar transition, all employment-based green cards will be issued on a first-co
me-first-served basis, with no country limits.
The legislation also includes a measure that will more than double the green
cards based on family ties available for Mexicans and Filipinos, the two na
tional groups facing the longest backlogs on the family side of the system.
It raises the country limit for 226,000 family green cards each year to 15 p
ercent from the current 7 percent.
The fix in the family visas helped to persuade Democrats like Mr. Gutierrez
to sign on to the bill.
By far, the main beneficiaries will be highly skilled immigrants from India
and China, including many with master’s degrees and doctorates in science a
nd engineering. Because they come from populous countries that send many peo
ple to work here who have advanced science and technology skills, immigrants
from those two nations had been forced by the country limits into lines tha
t were many years long and growing much longer.
In most cases, Indians and Chinese who will now receive their permanent gree
n cards more quickly have been working in the United States for years on tem
porary visas. The immigrants and their employers have passed labor market te
sts showing that qualified Americans were not available for jobs they hold.
“This legislation makes sense,” Mr. Smith said before the vote. “Why shou
ld American employers who seek green cards for skilled foreign workers have
to wait longer just because the workers are from India or China?”
American technology companies have been clamoring for Congress to offer more
green cards for their foreign employees, arguing that the United States was
losing out in global competition by forcing those immigrants to leave.
Some countries will lose under the legislation. During the next three years,
many more employment green cards will be set aside for Indians and Chinese
than for others languishing in backlogs, particularly Filipinos and South Ko
reans.
And because the law would add no new visas, backlogs would be redistributed
but not eliminated. The wait in the most severely clogged employment visa ca
tegories will even out over time to 12 years for all countries, said Stuart
Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy,
which conducts research on immigration.
Mr. Gutierrez said: “We need bigger fixes to our legal immigration system s
o that employers and families use official channels, not black-market ones.
We want people to go through the system, not around it.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 30, 2011
An earlier version of this article misstated how long the bill’s lead spons
or, Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, has served in his position. Mr.
Chaffetz was first elected to the House in 2008 and is now in his second ter
m; he is not a freshman.
om-china-and-india.html?_r=2&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
In a rare show of bipartisan comity on the angrily contested issue of immigr
ation, the House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill that tweaks the
visa system to allow more highly skilled immigrants from India and China to
become legal permanent residents.
The bill, originally offered by Representatives Jason Chaffetz, a conservati
ve Republican from Utah, and Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and chairman of
the House Judiciary Committee, sailed through by a vote of 389 to 15. Joini
ng as sponsors were several Democrats who are outspoken liberals on immigrat
ion, including Representatives Luis V. Gutierrez of Illinois and Zoe Lofgren
of California.
Mr. Chaffetz said he had tried to find a sweet spot, even if small, where la
wmakers from both parties could come together to fix the legal immigration s
ystem, which is widely acknowledged to be broken. The bill does not address
illegal immigration, nor does it add any new visas to the system, which many
Republicans, including Mr. Smith, are reluctant to do.
“I campaigned in Utah on the idea that we can never solve our illegal immig
ration woes without fixing legal immigration,” Mr. Chaffetz said Tuesday.
The bill seemed likely to pass easily in the Senate, said Senator Charles E.
Schumer of New York, a leading Democrat on immigration.
Its main impact will be to reduce visa backlogs that meant, for example, tha
t some Indians with science or technology skills who were approved recently
for permanent resident visas, known as green cards, would face waits of 70 y
ears before they would actually receive the documents.
The bill eliminates limits on the number of green cards based on employment
that is available annually to each country. Currently, 140,000 green cards a
re available each year for immigrants based on their job skills, with each c
ountry limited to 7 percent of those visas. Under the bill, after a three-ye
ar transition, all employment-based green cards will be issued on a first-co
me-first-served basis, with no country limits.
The legislation also includes a measure that will more than double the green
cards based on family ties available for Mexicans and Filipinos, the two na
tional groups facing the longest backlogs on the family side of the system.
It raises the country limit for 226,000 family green cards each year to 15 p
ercent from the current 7 percent.
The fix in the family visas helped to persuade Democrats like Mr. Gutierrez
to sign on to the bill.
By far, the main beneficiaries will be highly skilled immigrants from India
and China, including many with master’s degrees and doctorates in science a
nd engineering. Because they come from populous countries that send many peo
ple to work here who have advanced science and technology skills, immigrants
from those two nations had been forced by the country limits into lines tha
t were many years long and growing much longer.
In most cases, Indians and Chinese who will now receive their permanent gree
n cards more quickly have been working in the United States for years on tem
porary visas. The immigrants and their employers have passed labor market te
sts showing that qualified Americans were not available for jobs they hold.
“This legislation makes sense,” Mr. Smith said before the vote. “Why shou
ld American employers who seek green cards for skilled foreign workers have
to wait longer just because the workers are from India or China?”
American technology companies have been clamoring for Congress to offer more
green cards for their foreign employees, arguing that the United States was
losing out in global competition by forcing those immigrants to leave.
Some countries will lose under the legislation. During the next three years,
many more employment green cards will be set aside for Indians and Chinese
than for others languishing in backlogs, particularly Filipinos and South Ko
reans.
And because the law would add no new visas, backlogs would be redistributed
but not eliminated. The wait in the most severely clogged employment visa ca
tegories will even out over time to 12 years for all countries, said Stuart
Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy,
which conducts research on immigration.
Mr. Gutierrez said: “We need bigger fixes to our legal immigration system s
o that employers and families use official channels, not black-market ones.
We want people to go through the system, not around it.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 30, 2011
An earlier version of this article misstated how long the bill’s lead spons
or, Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, has served in his position. Mr.
Chaffetz was first elected to the House in 2008 and is now in his second ter
m; he is not a freshman.
