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COMPLETE Info on S386 Bill for Green Cards Country Limits Removal, Chances

Many of the foreign working professionals in US on non-immigrant visas such as H1B visa or L1 visa usually apply for Green Card to become permanent resident in US. Per country numerical limits for issuance of green cards is one of the biggest factors that determines how soon they will be able to get their green cards.  Recently, House passed a similar one called HR 1044 Bill that eliminates per country limits for employment based petitions. In this article, we will look at the complete details of S386 Bill, Amendment added by Senator Grassley, why  it is on hold, its chances of passing, including current status and latest updates.

Latest Update from December 3rd, 2020

All the text of S386 was added to HR 1044 and it was voted in Senate. Senator Mike Lee just asked for Unanimous consent in Senate and it was passed without any objection. It has many provisions like 9 Year Transition Period, Limits for H1B, Changs to H1B Program, LCA requirements, Adjustment of Status, many other topics. It is a 36 page Bill. We have wrote a detail article with all these covered, read the COMPLETE Summary of the HR1044 Bill Passed in Senate.

Note : The below S386 version and details are before December 2nd, 2020. Check the latest passed S386 / HR 1044 bill at : COMPLETE Summary of the HR1044 Bill Passed in Senate.

What is S. 386 Bill ? 5 Key Points in the S 386 Bill in Senate ?

S. 386 Bill is also referred to as ‘‘Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019’’, is a bill that was introduced in the US Senate by a group of 14 Senators like Mr. Lee, Ms. Harris. As the bill originated in Senate, it starts with an ‘S.’  The bill text is pretty much the same as the HR 1044 Bill ( Read HR 1044 Bill – Key Points, Chances, Summary), it is just that this one was introduced in the Senate. Below are the 5 key points that are part of the S. 386 to eliminate per country green card limits. You may skip the below 5 key points, if you know HR 1044 bill and go to Amendment directly.

1. Eliminate the Per Country Limits for Employment Based Green Card Petitions:

The per country limits for green cards are defined in Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) Section 202(a)(2), that states that out of the 140,000 employment based green card petitions allotted each year, 7% (9,800) is the maximum limit any country can get. The rationale behind the bill is that, as the Green Cards are given based on employment in this category and there should not be any discrimination or limit based on country of origin. Also, it is not fair to have same 7% country limits for small country like Iceland with 338K population vs India with 1.39 Billion population. As you can see below in screenshot from bill text, where they say that the text in INA has to be amended as below.  

S 386 Bill Official Info

Also, below you can see the INA text, where it has “and employment-based immigrants”, which they ask to strike out

Immigration and Nationality Act - Remove Per country Limits for Employment Based Reference details

2. Increase per country limits for family sponsored Green Card petitions :

If you notice closely in above screenshots, the previous text in INA says 7% limit, now with the new text to be replaced in INA, it says to be modified to 15%. Essentially the bill would change the limit for family sponsored green cards per country limit from 7% to 15 %.

3. Transition Rules for Employment Green Card Petitions from FY 2020 to FY 2022 :

The transition rules are in place to make sure big countries, such as India or China do not take up everything in the first few years.

  • For Fiscal Year 2020 ( Oct 2019 – Sept 2020) : 15% of employment based green cards should be allocated to immigrants from of two non-major foreign states ( like  India, China). Basically, 15% reserved for rest of the countries and only 85% to be allocated to major countries like India, China.
  •  For Fiscal Year 2021 ( Oct 2020 – Sept 2021) : 10% of employment based green cards should be allocated to immigrants of two non-major foreign states ( like  India, China). Basically, 10% reserved for rest of the countries and only 90% to be allocated to major countries like India, China.
  • For Fiscal Year 2022 ( Oct 2021 – Sept 2022) : 10% of employment based green cards should be allocated to immigrants of two non-major foreign states ( like  India, China). Basically, 10% reserved for rest of the countries and only 90% to be allocated to major countries like India, China.
  • After Fiscal Year 2022 ( From October 2022), there will NOT be any reservations for non-major foreign states.

 4. Per Country limits in the Transition Rules for Employment Based from FY 2020 to FY 2022:

  • Reserved Visas: In the above mentioned reservation of 15% and 10% for non-major states during transition period, the number of visas for any foreign country (that is a non-major state) shall not exceeded 25% or 2% for dependent areas ( these are not independent countries, but dependent colonies, parts of certain countries like French Polynesia of France. Read on State.gov – Dependent areas ) of the total reserved visas. Meaning that any country that is part of the non-major countries list (not like India, China) cannot take up more than 25% of the total reserved visas/green cards.
  • Unreserved Visas: During the transition period of FY 2020, 2021, 2022 as mentioned above, for the all the un-reserved visas ( basically 85% in FY 2020, 90% in FY 2021, FY 2022), not more than 85% of visas should be allocated to single country. Essentially, they are telling that of the un-reserved portion cannot be taken up by one country alone and the maximum they can take is 85% of the quota. E.g. India or China can only take up 85% maximum from the 85% pool in FY 2020
  • Special Rule to prevent Unused Visas :   During the transition period of FY 2020, 2021 and 2022, if any of the visas are left over or unused due the clauses as listed above like per country levels, and reservations, then such visas should be given to remaining ones in line without applying such restrictions.

5. Current Approved Beneficiaries in line – Transition Rule:  

To prevent harm to anyone waiting for green card, a clause is added. It says that, if you are already waiting in line for Green Card with approved I-140, you would either have same or shorter wait time, after this bill is passed. The intent of this clause is not to harm or impact people already waiting in line for Green Card with priority date. The goal of the clause is to prevent someone applying today for I-140 and getting ahead of someone, who has been waiting in line before the passing of this new rule.

For Official Text, info, status Check S. 386 Bill Text on Congress.gov

What happened to S 386 Bill after it was introduced in Senate ? Total Sponsors.

After the bill was introduced in Senate in Feb 2019, the total co-sponsors for the Bill grew from 14 to 34 members until now. As per the Steps on How a Bill Becomes Law in US, similar to any bill in house, senate bill also has to go through the respective committees and then goes for the senate floor for debate, then voting. In case of S.386 as part of that committee process, there were few H1B related amendments introduced by Judiciary committee Senator Chuck Grassley. Let’s look at them.

On July 9th, 2019, Senator Chuck Grassley included many H1B program and Labor condition application(LCA) related provisions as amendment to the original bill. Below are those amendments. If you are not familiar with LCA, first read What is Labor Condition Application (LCA), Why file it?

  • Post H1B Jobs on Department of Labor :  within 180 days from the date the bill passes, Department of Labor(DOL) should setup a “Searchable Internet website” to post the H1B positions that are available to be viewed by public for free. The job has to be posted for at least 30 days  on the website and has to have all the below information :
    • Job Description, Title, Occupational classification, education, training and experience required.
    • Salary and wage details, employment benefits
    • Location of the employment
    • Process to apply for the position.
    • DOL may work with private companies, non-profit orgs to development and manage the H1B jobs website.  
    • See below screenshot of the actual amendment text
H1B Job Posting requirement in S386 Amendment
  • H1B Employer Application Requirements for New Applications :  As per the amendments, below are the various rules that need to be complied by the employer when they do recruiting for open positions.
    • For new applications, the employer or anyone hiring on behalf of employer should not advertise the position saying that it is available only to H1B holders and there will be priority for H1B applicants.
    • If the employer already has H1B workers, they need to submit the IRS W-2 forms related to H1B workers to the DOL Secretary.
    • The LCA should also have the prevailing wage determining methodology information.
  • New LCA Fee : Currently, there is no fee for filing LCAs. In the new proposed rules, for administrative expenses, DOL has to come up with a fee for LCA filing and tracked under an account called  ‘H–1B Administration, Oversight, Investigation, and Enforcement Account’  and used for H1B program by DOL.
  • Elimination of B1  visa in lieu ( instead) of H1B : It says that US State department should not issue B-1 visa for short term work contracts, instead of H1B visa. In general, even today B1 should not be used for short term projects. The goal of this point is to weed out companies trying to eliminate LCA process and H1B for any short term work. This is something that many companies use and abuse as well for short term projects, the trick is in the enforcement.  
  • H1B Employers Investigation and enforcement, LCA Reviews : There are many clauses like below added to enforce the LCA measures and tackle violations by employers.
    • Additional protections for employees who report violations of employers related to wages or LCA provisions
    • Information sharing between USCIS and DOL regarding the H1B petitions that can be used by DOL for enforcement and compliance.
    • Additional authority for Dept of Labor (DOL) to review the LCA beyond just the completeness of the LCA form and to look for any fraud or false information by employers.
    • Prevailing wage enforcements to make sure the employers are obligated to pay the actual wages that are there in a particular geographic area for similar experience, job role with similar duties.
    • If there are complaints, DOL may initiate investigations in detail. Also, DOL may conduct surveys and annual audits for LCA compliance.
    • DOL to conduct annual compliance audits for employers with more than 100 employees and have 15% of the workforce as H1B. Annual reports on audit and compliance for public review.
    • The penalties amount paid by employers for violations are modified to be more for anyone who violates any of the rules of LCA.
    • Expansion of DOL’s authority to conduct investigations based on anonymous complaints, where DOL would provide notice and details to respond before investigation. Also, if DOL finds the employer did not comply requirements, such info maybe shared with interested parties, and a hearing with them within 60 days. Also, penalties will be imposed, if found any violations.

You can read the official text of the amendments of S 386 on Congress.gov

S 386 Blocked by Senator Rand Paul – Reason : Carve out for Nurses

In July, the bill was brought on to the floor but was blocked by Senator Rand Paul for voting. The reason for blocking or hold is that Senator Paul wants to introduce carve out ( set aside some amount) for nurses. The argument for carve out for nurses is that, nurses in general are not eligible for H1B and cannot work while waiting for their green cards. If S. 386 passes in its form, it will have a big impact on wait times for nurses, who apply using EB-3 quota. Currently, majority of the nurses using EB-3 are from Philippines and there is no wait time. If S. 386 passes as it is, it will add up wait time for nurses by few years to a decade as major countries like India will take up most of the available quota. That’s the reason Senator Rand Paul wants to carve out for Nurses.

Update : The hold was removed by Sen. Rand Paul as his request was added to the new Amended HR 1044 Bill that is pretty much updated with text from S.386. Read Amended HR 1044 Bill with S. 386 Details

Latest News Updates, Status of S.386 Bill:

December 2nd, 2020 Senator Mike Lee asked for Unanimous consent in Senate for HR1044 / S386 with some amendments and it was passed without any objection. What is not clear is, “what is the final version of the bill that was passed with amendments and what it includes and what it does not”. This is developing news, we will post the detail article, once we have Official Congressional Record. Stay Tuned.

We are tracking all the news separately by date in separate page as it is lengthy. Check out article at : Latest news updates on the S.386 and HR 1044

What are the chances of S. 386 Bill to pass in Senate?

Even though HR 1044 was passed in House with a big majority, S. 386 path to pass in Senate is rather very steep. In general, in Senate to go for voting, you need unanimous consent, but any senator or group of senators can put on a hold or block it at this point.  If they do not remove hold and intend to continue debate, it is called filibuster (endless debate). To get out of it you need 60 votes called Cloture to get out of it. If you want more,  read How a Bill becomes Law in US.  

In S. 386 bill context, there were holds by few senators and they all were removed with some agreements. But, as of July 24th, 2020, the primary hold is by Senator Durbin. There were discussions between him and Senator Lee for a long time since Dec 2019, but they fell apart due to various reasons. There was heated argument in Senate on Jul 21st, Jul 22nd as both objected other’s UC request.

   Now, if current sponsors of the Bill headed by Senator Mike Lee S. 386 goes to next step by accommodating many of these items, the risk is that other Senators may come up again and also put holds and add on some other amendments as riders  ( amendments that may not be relevant to the bill) and further make it difficult to pass. We do not know at this point, if someone else would come and again stop the bill. So, as it stands today, unless the co-sponsors of the bill hit at least 60, the chances of the bill going forward are in risky position.

What do you think of the S. 386 Bill ? What are its chances in your view in Senate ?

   

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67 Comments

  1. Passing this bill is not fair. It is not other country’s fault that their population is not as much of India or China. This bill should be stopped and completely removed.

    Reply
  2. What a terrible law. It’s like the positive affirmation system except for Indians. India should “only get 90%”? Ridiculous law.

    Reply
  3. what is the chance of this bill getting passed.. I hope it reduces the 100 year wait some countries like China, India had..

    I see the neighboring countries Srilanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar guys getting green cards in just 6 months and getting all their families into US while the other 800,000 people wait for a decade. This is not fair

    Reply
    • Chinese are against this bill. Currently 550k people waiting in the line and 512k of these are Indians. Chinese organizations announced that they are against this several times. There may be Chinese people who would benefit from this bill but overall their avrg. wait times will increase with this bill.

      Reply
  4. H1B is dominated by Indian workers because coincidentally US has a lot of jobs in the tech sector and there are a lot of Indians with the required skills for these jobs. Go to an MS in Science classroom in the US, >90% students are from India, some from other asian countries and some from Europe. Not a lot of american residents are interested in higher education in a challenging and demanding field. US residents that are programming-savvy, tend to get into research type jobs, instead of application development / technology operations.

    I have worked with Indians. They may take time to adapt to the US culture, but they are not cheap labor, they are competent and willing to give it there all.

    If Indians are disincentivized and stop coming to the US, the jobs will still remain, either filled by immigrants from other countries (increasing backlogs for ROW) or outsourced altogether.

    So making an argument against Indians is just hateful and unfair. A country should not be penalized because of its population and a race should not be used to suppress people with hard-earned knowledge and strong work ethic.

    Indian immigrants alone contribute more to taxes in this country than ROW combined. Plus they are mostly peaceful people.

    As of 1 January 2019, the population of the EU is about 513.5 million people (28 countries), while India has 1.4 billion (one country). It is almost unbelievable that India is more culturally diverse than EU, with 22 completely different official languages and easily over a 100 unofficial languages. Is it fair they are given a 7% cap when EU gets 28 times more?

    Reply
    • Indians apply for multiple H1B visas through multiple employers, so Indian gets most of the H1B visas. You can get/buy any degree from the thousands of tutorial centers/Universities mushroomed in India. Indian hiring managers/interviewers never hire non-Indians. The Indian IT managers in USA protect their low skilled Indian counterparts at any cost. S386 will open the floodgate of non-stoppable discriminations by Indians against whites, blacks and all other non-Indians. Very few countries reach their stipulated 7% quota, whereas Indians some years got a staggering 30% of the annual 140,000 of employment based green cards. Most of the Indians get their green cards in 7/8 years unless they change employer. It’s a lie when they say it will take them many years in current quota system. Why are they complaining?

      Reply
      • David,

        If you have Skill no Indian manager will stop you , on the other side without skill its just not Indian Manager who ever it is will prefer the one who is smart enough.

        Reply
      • David,

        Please do not post anything with out having correct information.
        7/8 years ? Are you kidding ?
        If this doesn’t pass, wait times are over 100 years.
        Currently (On August 2020), 2009 July are being processed and each year its moving ahead only by a month.

        Reply
      • David Park. This is half knowledge talk. Only write when you know throw . You are taking 1 or 2 samples and generalizing to entire population which is not fair. I came to this country in 2006 and I can guarantee I will not receive my GC for another 10 years with the current system . every single person I know in my town I am currently living are waiting at least for 11years . I am an educator in US school system . Most of my students I taught in INDIA are here in USA and I know their caliber some of them got into IIT and came here not a single one I know would need to get the fake certificates, in fact the companies hire them in India to bring them here of their talent . Just dont go by few examples from the news and generalize to entire population . Collect adequate data take random samples make statistical analysis and then make conclusions . US has their system to track the fake ones and put behind the bars those play with system. look into real facts and give fair chance to everyone regardless of the race and nationality . think being in my shoes I teach American students sent most of them to colleges , but I my self can not send my child to the college she deserve to be in due to lack of GC.

        Reply
  5. Support the below link if you agree and keep retweeting it every day, don’t put effort anywhere else.

    https://twitter.com/ResidentUs/status/1180530051332206594?s=20

    Hi All,

    I have been watching for few days the news on S386/HR1044 , the bill has created a perfect
    divide between the ROW, India and China (Specially the EB5), I understand the plight of Indian and Chinese(Eb5) where they worried more about thier H4 Kids which are aging out. They not worried about thier greencard, they are fighters with all the visa renewal process.

    But at the same time we need to understand we cannot have this problem passed on to the Kids of ROW.

    S386 kind of solution will create division among Genunie Hardworking Legal Tax Paying Resident.

    Solution needs to be such that which is win win for everyone(ROW,China,India and President) and here
    is what I propose.

    Currently the biggest challenge is not the 7% country cap, but the inclusion of FAMILY MEMBERS
    in Employement visa category.

    Due to this even if a country with 7% cap gets 10K visa, every family members are added to it the greencard count get reduced to 1/3 (3.3K).

    We should try to have a Bill Passed which will have the Employement Category greencard only for the Employees. For Spouse/Kid use greencard from Family category quota (which are more than 1/2 million) . This will make everyone happy.

    India Eb2/Eb3 backlog will be cleared in 3 years
    China EB5 backlog will be cleared in 4 years.
    China Eb3/2 will become current.
    ROW will have more Greencard, which will spill over to backlog countries.
    President goal of having family visa only for Spouse and Kids.
    And last we can have a 5K Dollar Border security fee added to the Employment Greencard, which will help them collect 1 Billion Annually.

    Reply
    • Indians go through so much pain for decades. It’s not just employment slavery. Marriages go bad in decades and women suffering can not come out of it. Maybe it’s just bad abuse and not violence and they have no way to get out of it. They leave their country, their job, their life and get stuck here. Also it’s racial discrimination in a country like USA where some people are getting green card in 10 months and others don’t get it in 10 years under same visa category.

      Reply
  6. If people are not going to get GC in their life time, we are still considered temporary work force and cannot get benefit out of Security and Medicare taxes that we are paying, then we should challenge this tax deductions from our pay check in US court. Many other countries either do not deduct social security or return all the tax deducted ones you leave that particular country.

    Why we have to donate our hard earned money to ROW (Rest of the world) who just cut line and get their GC in just 6 months?

    Reply
  7. First of all, no one mentioned about current H1B system, which is dominated by Indians (over 75%). This is due to Indian outsourcing companies (Infosys for example). Many candidates reside in India and don’t even have a US degree (some file multiple petitions), which caused a large amount of candidates waiting for Green Card. This hurts not just people from other counties, but also Indian people who fight hard to get a H1B vsia. Abuse of H1B system by Indian companies should be blamed for this. Secondly, the bill will definitely hurt the diversity of US workers and the average waiting time will go much longer (over 10 years) for other candidates. Most Indian candidates are in tech industry, which mean candidates from other industries (healthcare, manufacturing, biotech, etc) will be impacted dramatically. This bill will do harm to other candidates without fixing the root cause. Last but not least, without increasing the green card cap for all countries, the bill is actually not in pursuit for fairness. In fact, the number of green cards granted to Indians every year is much more than other countries. Removing the country cap won’t solve the issue. We either increase the Green Card cap or move toward to a merit-based Green Card system is the right path to go. Let me know your thoughts, I am ready to answer any questions.

    Reply
    • You are absolutely right. The first thing first is to fix the abused H1B system, so those IT consultant comany cannot ship cheap labor from India to replace American tech workers.

      Only after this problem is solved, can congress draft a bill granting green card to people who have been waiting in line for long time. This current bill is going to take the green card quota from other countries and to benefit India only, it is simply wrong.

      Reply
    • I understand that Indian employment companies want cheap labor, not the Indians who work in US they want to cheap labor. Indian employers using loophole no caps in H1B visa granting, and, cap in GC granting 7%. They need to apply 7% cap on H1B visa granting that is the job of legislation. We want to have justice for everybody but they have no caps for H1B and caps for GCs, so math doesn’t add up. Hope, not making unhappy ROW, but, also not punishing Indians, Senators figure out a way. Else, our life was not American Dream, but, would turn into American Nightmare :). I am paying taxes since I started working in 2006, estimated date shows somewhere 2030. Almost 24 years of youth loss is considered life is done :). Hoping for the best for all (India, China, and ROW).

      Reply
    • This is biggest misunderstanding every one has Indian dominates h1 b visa ..72% Indians get H1B …I agree India gets highest h1b..in a year there are 85k h1b visas and 120k green cards in EB1,EB2,EB3 employments category..Indians getting only 10k greengards every year starting 2015 ….where the rest 110 k green cards are getting allocated in employment category? The real twist is USCIS always releases data for entire year …as Indians are waiting for long backloags every 3 years they have to do h1 b extension …under trump many of them doing every year …when extension is approved USCIS publishes h1b given to Indian …72% h1 b given to Indian is wrong statements it’s for entire year …the truth is Indians get around 20k to 25k new h1b in 85k lottery..rest all approval are h1b extension given for already approved people …rest of world gets 50 k h1b visa and apply for green card and get it with in 10 months they never go to extension…this where all green cards going.

      Reply
    • Merit-based Green Card system has a huge problem. Indians will manipulate it. You can get/buy any degree from the thousands of tutorial centers/Universities mushroomed in India.
      H1B visas should be open for only US graduates unless the candidate is highly skilled with proven track record and shouldn’t be more than 10% of total visas.
      Indian hiring managers/interviewers never hire non-Indians.

      Reply
    • If they have country quota cap of 7% for GC, then, they should keep 7% cap in H1B as well. If that is not fixed, it is a bottleneck. Predators are smart to use any loophole that they can find.

      Reply
    • Hey Mike,

      Abuse only happens when there is loophole. H1B system and Greencard system created a loophole. Country cap of 7% on GC, but, no country cap on H1B. Every authority has stats every year who they granted H1B or GC. Nobody likes to work cheap. I hope understand the loophole why this situation happened.

      Reply
      • No country should have to go through H1B visa lottery unless they have more than five thousands applicants. Some smaller countries like Serbia, Croatia with less than two hundred H1B applicants have to go through H1B visa lottery which results in almost no H1B visa from those countries, even though they have much better candidates than India.
        Every applicant in India applies from multiple Indian companies using the same lawyer and easily picked up by the lottery system.

        Reply
    • I think if USCIS gives GC to Indians in 6 to 10 months as the rest of the countries are getting then Indians companies don’t need any abuse. Just give it for a few years and watch it, it won’t happen then everybody will know the facts.

      Reply
  8. Bunch of clowns who are jealous of indian’s success making these cheap statements…loopholes are everywhere and there are people who abuse system everywhere, not just indians, not just happening in H1 visas…

    Today with these stupid country limits even Micro Soft Satya Nadella or Sundar Pichai (Google CEO) could get stuck in these queues for decades…someone who barely knows anything from small countries are given green cards, that’s fine with these folks complaining.

    Only when it comes to indians these people have problem…so many factless statements

    Reply
  9. whoever you are , where do you get these thoughts of 6 months of training and getting into USA? those who have skills and knowledge , they should never worry about competition. I think this is reaction reflecting insecurity. we all are humans and not everyone from a specific country produces best talent so only blaming india does not make sense. I have been working with many people from all over the world and i see very knowledgeable and lesser one too..so it is useless to go through all these arguments rather invest our time to learn something new for our future..

    Reply
  10. guys, you all missed a very important answer to fundamental question even before this debate starts. What is the definition for a high skilled worker? Let me explain something : number can be cooked, common sense can not. A qualified high skilled worker usually takes 16 to 22 years of study and training. There are about 24% Chinese companies listed on Forbes 500, in contrast to only 1.4% Indian companies on Forbes 500. Does this real statistics reveal some insights about high skilled workers? This morning I was in a elevator, there were 7 peoples, 6 of them are Indian, when I walk out of elevator, I saw another two Indian, this is a random sampling, you can find the similar situation yourself in high skill required companies. Let’s recall how this happened – globalism, American companies want to outsource high paid job to oversea, Indian is by happen a English speaking nation with cheap labors. Big global companies want cost-saving by bringing over cheap labors from India through IT consulting companies, actually there are not really qualified worker, they just went through a 3 to 6 months intensive bootstrap camp programming training. So in essence, ICC business model is to run an immigration companies, ICC also exploits Indian folks by luring H1B path to green card. So for those people who believe this scheme bill, do yourself a favor, go to google put keywords 95% unqualified programmer, you will find a creditable article here with good reasoning: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/the-real-reason-why-95-of-indian-engineers-cant-code/articleshow/62067588.cms

    This bill is a fake scheme full of horse dirt, more interesting thing is many of politicians might not know what they are doing, they are just doing colleague a political favor, this bill is nothing more than a lobbyist operation backed by Indian IT consulting companies. They want their unscrupulous conduct of immigration business model to be rewarded big time, the diversity and ecosystem in high skill required companies will completely eliminated, this will be a very sad and bad thing for every one in USA America born included except for Indian folks. Common sense rules.

    Reply
    • Perhaps you can start by explaining why there are more Chinese than Indians in America. How conveniently you forget that fact? The only difference is Indians mingle more freely with the rest of the people while the chinese are huddled together in their China towns all over the country.

      About Chinese companies listed on Fortune 500, that is the biggest joke I have heard. You steal ideas, patents, technologies everywhere and talk about your Fortune 500 companies. I bet you will have less than 1% once you account for the stolen ideas and pay for it…What a joke! At least Indians are not involved in stealing ideas and taking to other countries.

      Besides, you have idea of the deep shit you are in. It is only a matter of time before you realize how this system will screw you up too.

      Reply
      • First off, there are 4.4 million Indian diaspora in the US, compared to 5.2 million Chinese diaspora. That’s a mere 20% difference. Chinese immigration to the US also goes back over 150 years, when many were brought in as laborers to help build the Pacific Railroad. Not only were they underpaid and forced to work in hazardous conditions, but the US didn’t even have enough gratitude to let them stay after they completed their work. Instead the Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted, which banned Chinese immigration to the US for over 60 years. You think you have it bad? You’ve got no damn clue what the Chinese had to put with in the old days, and we took all that in stride. Imagine if an Indian Exclusion Act was passed, you guys would all be out rioting on the streets 24/7!

        As for the bit about Indians mingle more freely, I think you meant to say they mingle more freely with their own. I rarely see any Indians at the company’s social events, and they always sit at their own table or with other Indians during lunch.

        Indians might not be involved in stealing ideas and patents, but you guys sure do a great job of falsifying resumes/jobs and committing visa fraud!

        You Indians couldn’t give a rat’s ass about “fairness” or “equality”, you just want to see others suffer for what is a basically a problem you created yourself. Well too bad your WITCH companies abused and monopolized the H1B system for far too long, now you reap what you sow.

        Reply
    • 北美大侠 I am agreeing on your thoughts 100%. If the bill passes, it can only mean that there are going to be a lot of Indian workers replacing all others within the next 10 years, and that is not what I would call fairness, even though Indians had suffered waiting for the H1b Visa, it is not America’s fault, it is simply because India has much more applicants. If I want fairness, I would go from cleaning up the Indian applicants (some are not legit from what I heard of), instead of saying you guys come in and let the others wait. That is like donating all the food to the hungry kids and let all others suffer, which is not a bright move. And as the other person that is basically threatening 北美大侠 that the bill will pass and let others suffer, that shows very much how the true face of the bill, which is only benefitial to certian people and ignoring all others. This is not justice, and it is an obvious steal, and I hope US is more careful about it because I get it you want to help to fulfill the need and you have the power so far, however by getting all the crying out loud kids first instead of anyone else, is that going to help build a better country? I hope there are still people that understand caring is not all about giving, but also setting up a fair rule first. Because all sources are limited, we need an investigation, find out the real cause, and solve that, instead of getting tired of it and just say “fine, there you have it”, because it is never this simple to solve a big problem like this.

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  11. The reality of S386 is: through decades of abusing, now Indians have already taken up 75% of the total H1B visa. The green card cap for all the other countries is 7% while Indians have 20%. Now they want to pass s386 to occupy every single green card! And Chinese will not get any of the Green cards in the coming 10 years either! As a result, S386 should not be passed before the following two steps are fulfilled:
    Step 1. Since a large part of these H1B visas are problematic and should checked, the illegal applicants should be revoked their H1B visas even green cards; Step 2. Since Indians have a cap of 20% while others only have 7%, we count how many more green cards are issued to Indians than people from other countries, and Indians should have zero green card until such a discrepancy is covered. The core is not about nationality, it is about CHEATING. In the name of fairness and justice, we should clear up those cheaters first. For example, nearly 75 out of 100 have passed an exam and get offered a job through cheating. One day clear evidence shows there exist cheating! Rather that given those 75 cheater a job immediately, we should check how many of them are cheaters and revoke their job offers, and give the offer to those legally passed the exam their jobs! Or else, by giving those 75 cheaters a job means unfair for those who may have the job but got their job stolen by those cheaters! Or we can choose a better such as increase the cap gradually, like 14% for the next year, then 28%, then 56% , then 100%. What’s more is that S386 will clearly hand over more jobs from US citizen to Indians and decrease total number of jobs for US citizens. The present S386 is absolutely the worst solution. The video below can help you learn the situation better:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=-jqWcyx7Mcc&from=singlemessage&isappinstalled=0&app=desktop

    Reply
      • There is a mechanism in USCIS called “spill over”, which means the un-finished greed card quota from other countries can be allocated to countries with very high demand like India, China etc (mainly benefits India), so the actual share for India applicants is 20%, not 7%.

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        • While the concept of spillover exists , USCIS never shared any data on how many Green cards were issued under “spill over “. Now, how did you service this magic 20% number which was not even published by USCIS ? If you did some Math to derive the 20% number can you share it with public ? If not can you agree that you just MADE THAT UP ???

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          • What Winston said is pretty much accurate and not made up at all. There are data supporting what Winston said. Please go to https://www.dhs.gov/profiles-lawful-permanent-residents and see for yourself how many employment based green cards were awarded to Indian Citizens every year. I just looked at latest three year (2017, 2016 & 2015) and it averages around 17% of the total allotted 140,000 green cards annually. Do not try to mislead folks with your propaganda. Please keep in mind that there are smart and informed people who can dig in deep and find out where the data are. Just because you do not know it, does not mean the data do not exist. Ramona is absolutely wrong by saying US Governments never shared data on how many green cards were issued under spillover. Please go to the website and look for yourself.

          • In fact, I just looked at the year 2014 and the number of GC awarded to Indians are 40,980 which is equivalent to a staggering 30% of the annual 140,000 of employment based green cards. Indian nationals are already getting a way more share of their stipulated 7% quota and now they want 100% of the annual green cards to be granted to them. LOL.

          • Thank you very much MS for providing accurate data from DHS.

            Actually, the best way to get correct numbers on this issue, is to have a public hearing at the Senate, so that officials from DHS, USCIS would provide detailed information.
            They would also have a chance to explain, from US government point of view, why both DHS and USCIS oppose s386.

    • Zhifeng Xu, the kind of people showed in video qualify for EB1 category or Extraordinary talent which doesn’t have issue. We should root for H1B visa country quota which is a root cause of current situation. So many Indians waited for 10+ years and yielded the whole world, not it is time to yield to Indians. Iranians crying and saying they get single entry visa. They must have done something terribly wrong to not get multi-entry visa.

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      • Being an Iranian Citizen is the reason behind getting a single entry visa! It is not our choice! We are under huge social pressures in Iran as well as other countries , which have problem with the government of Iran!

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  12. This bill is not just about killing the diversity of races, but also it will destroy the diversity in the field of employment. Since most of Indians are employed in the IT, for more than 10 years there will be no green card for physicians, scientists, researchers, physicists, mathematicians, astronomers, and etc.
    Removing country cap seems fair, but adding a field of expertise cap is also necessary.

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    • Mohammad, rule should be applied at root cause. Grant H1B by country quota and by profession need or both. India yielded whole world for 10 years, now it is a time for the world to yield. If you are not getting multi entry visa, your country must have done something terribly wrong.

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  13. This bill will make US much less attractive for foreign high-skilled worker except Indian. In the next 10 years a large amount of Indian who work for IT companies will get the green card while people from other countries including China will not get chance to the green card. It is OK to say this is employment-based not diversity-based. However, you will almost only get the IT workers in the next 10 years while people in other fields have minimum chance (they have to wait for a looong time) to get the green card. Do you think the absolute employment-based policy is really good for the country? No, it is not. High-skilled workers except Indian will not stay in the US when they realize they need to wait for over 10 years to get a green card.

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  14. “”Also, it is not fair to have same 7% country limits for small country like Iceland with 338K population vs India with 1.39 Billion population.””

    This is funny.

    Does the author know how percentages work?

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  15. We Indians talk about skills or diversity or culture based on whether it would benefit us in the underlying context. We take great pride in India yet we are ready to get out of India.
    Modi can have Indians as his first choice but Americans cannot have. Then we move to the topic USA is the land of immigrants and quote Statue of Liberty.
    Remember none of these are in constitution.
    We ourselves don’t have any diversity within our own country.
    How many people from other countries are allowed to work in India?

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  16. If this passes, the US will see a major increase in Indian population for about 10 years before any other immigrants from other countries. Although there are many Chinese trying to immigrant, but the number of Indian immigrants who are not even in the US waiting for the green card is many many times more than Chinese who are in line for this. Once this is passed, the US will only see Indian immigrants for about the next 10 years (as Immigration Voice already predicted). Because of the chance of stay is pretty much eliminated, no other high-skilled immigrant-to-be would want to come to the US anymore. The only “diversity” you will have is Indians. Good luck….

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    • I don’t understand why people are concerned about diversity when it gets to this bill.
      This is “employment” based green card, not “diversity” based green card. So, why are you concerned about diversity? There is diversity visas and green cards meant for diversity. If you are skilled, your country of origin should not be a discriminatory factor in deciding when you get a green card.

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      • Why is this discrimination at the first place? Every country has 7% cap. It is not only India has a cap. Maybe you should better learn what discrimination means before replying a thread.

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        • Why do you think one country is one race? India have many languages . Each state speaks a different language and culture. It just happened to be a country. But it is equivalent of EU where many cultures ,many languages exist.

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        • If you talk about diversity and make one queue for India, then queues should exist for East Asia/Africa/Latina/Arabs . not separate queues for internal city-like/province like so called countries..

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        • Take out the word “discriminatory” from that sentence and my comment still makes perfect sense. Please don’t oppose something for the sake of opposing.

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    • Keep in mind this is employment greencard and diversity base. They are giving you visa based on your skill and talent and not from race/religion/country basis. Stop crying.

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    • There will not be an increase, most of them are already in here in the workforce. Its just giving them the ability to improve the economy further by creating businesses in-turn creating more jobs rather than just being legal tax paying citizens stuck with a job/employer.

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    • As someone else pointed out Diversity based GCs are fundamentally different than Employment based GC. For employment based GC it’s idiotic and absurd to have country quotas. It’s almost like I will not take someone in MIT computer engineering because you’re from India and this year I already have 4 people from India. Any employment based GC should be based on one and only one thing that is merit, and if US system has approved their PERM or I-140 that means they’ve found those individuals credible and meritorious enough. So based on merit and not on country of birth they should be granted visa not on some archaic pre-set numbers.

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  17. I think that we should eliminate the H1B visa entirely. This is a corrupt process that allows American employers to outsource to cheap overseas labor over qualified Americans.

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  18. Are you sure that you always need unanimous consent for voting? I think it is based on senate committee’s prioritization criteria for a voting.

    Where did you get his from?
    “In general, in Senate to go for voting, you need unanimous consent”

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    • Yes, that’s correct info. In general, the process is that in Senate, usually voting happens either after unanimous consent or when the debate ends. As there is no time limit for debate in Senate, any senator can try to put a hold by continuously debating on it, which is called filibustering…To get out of that you need a cloture and to invoke that you need 60 votes…You can read How Bill Becomes a Law in US, it has all official references for you…

      Reply

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