Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 Draft <-- Guys, may be interested to you
Relay from immigration-law.com
Sen. Arlen Specter's "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006" Draft
* AILA has obtained and summarized the draft of Senator Specter's draft of Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, which will be introduced in the Senate Judiciary shortly (
March 2, 2006). This is basically a Republican bill that put together various pending bills with some adjustments, such as the PACE Act, McCain-Kennedy bill, and other Comprehensive Immigration Reform bills. We are happy to report that when it comes to the employment-based immigration,
this bill incorporates the following key elements:
o Recapture of employment-based immigration visa numbers since FY 2001
o Exempt from the employment-based numerical limitation of the spouses and children of the EB immigrants
o Exempt from the employment-based numerical limitation for (1) the advanced degree holders in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics with 3 years of work experience in the major fields in the U.S., or (2) National Interest Waiver EB-2. (For comparison with other bills, please revisit our summary report on 08/18/2005 in the Breaking News Archive.
o Increase of employment-based immigrant quota from 140,000 to 290,000 with the allocations in EB-1=15%, EB-2=15%, EB-3 Skilled Worker/Professional=35%, Other Worker (Unskilled)=Upto 30%, and EB-4 Investor Immigrant=5%.
o Special green card eligibility for the U.S. Doctorate Degree holders under the new F-4 visa program in Mathematics, Engineering, Technology or Physical Sciences with full full-time employment
o Increase of H-1B annual quota from 65,000 to 115,000 or a market-based increase beyond 115,000
o H-1B cap exempt for those advanced degree holders in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (not limited to the U.S. degree holders)
o New F-4 visa for those pursuing advanced degree program in Mathematics, Engineering, Technology or Physical Sciences with the accompanying benefits of "intending immigrant" in certain cases, special handling labor certification application for immigration, and for the doctoral degree holders in the U.S., green-card eligibility
o OPT period change for all the F-1 students from the current 12 months to 24 months and off-campus employment opportunity unrelated to the filed of study on or off academic terms under certain conditions.
* Unfortunately, the Senator dropped from S. 1932 the provision on availability of I-485 filings for employment-based immigrants during the period of retrogression. We urge the Senator to reinstate this provision in the final draft of his bill before it is introduced to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Community leaders, please urgently contact the Senator's office to urge him to reinstate this provision.
