I am just surprised by the passivity of a majority of people who are affected by this bill – I wish we could have everyone be more proactive to put more pressure on the lawmakers.

In any case, I did my bit of leaving voice mail, sending email and then even faxes of my emails. I hope all your other readers are too!

To answer your questions.

“I wonder what the remaining 147,000 will be used for.”
That apparently will be used for the point based system but remember that the number is for everyone in the point based system and an Indian national we are still subject to the 10% cap. Also, there was some talk of diverting some numbers from that to the Z category workers.

“What I like about the current bill is that it does away with the EB1,EB2 and EB3 categories and introduces a new merit based system.”
Yes the merit based system is theoritically good but flawed in implementation. Under the current points system, a lot of agricultural workers and lowskilled workers might end up getting more points than you. Moreover, despite the points, you will still be subject to per-country limit of 10%. Considering the number of people with similar skill levels who are in the US, that might again lead to long wait times and queues.

“This should mean that if someone like you or me applied for a new green card, you will get a green card really quickly and maybe even faster than the backlog processing times. So we might as well just submit a brand new application!!”
Are you sure that you want to take yourself out from the existing queue and lose your position? With 10% limits still in place and the new system still getting into place, there is no guarantee that the new system will work. They don’t say anything about if we will need to apply for the labor again, or if the point system is free from employer restrictions and so on and so forth.

Our entire point is that this bill should have addressed this uncertainities for skilled workers instead of exacerbating them. It is really ironic that there will be 2.2 million visas /year for 5 years for illegal immigrants. If they’d used just 25% of that per year quota for just one year, they would have eliminated the entire skilled worker backlog.

Certainly we can hope that under the new point system, we will be better off, but with so much uncertainty in the bill, hope is not a strategy.

Congratulations to you (and Immigration Voice) for being able to interpret the immigration bill. We were of course alarmed that the employment based green card numbers would be reduced to 90,000 instead of the current number of 140,000. I just read Murthy.com’s last visa bulletin and to quote directly from that bulletin :

” The employment category is referred to as “merit.” This sets three different worldwide ceiling levels. For the first five years after enactment of the proposal, the level would be set at a number that is believed to be 247,000. Of this number, 90,000 would be set aside for eliminating backlogs and 10,000 set aside for exceptional Y visa holders.

For the following three or four years (until the first undocumented workers can adjust status), the level would be set at 140,000 with the same set aside for eliminating backlogs. Once undocumented workers can adjust status, the level increases to 380,000. There will be supplemental allocations for these individuals.”

So it looks like the total number of green cards issued every year for the first 5 years will be 247,000 of which 90,000 will be used to clear backlogs, 10000 for Y visa holders. I wonder what the remaining 147,000 will be used for.

What I like about the current bill is that it does away with the EB1,EB2 and EB3 categories and introduces a new merit based system. If you look at the way the points are awarded, you will see that most tech workers who have been working in the USA for the last 5 years and also have a graduate degree score almost full points in each of the section. This should mean that if someone like you or me applied for a new green card, you will get a green card really quickly and maybe even faster than the backlog processing times. So we might as well just submit a brand new application!!

What do you think ?