Breaking News
BREAKING NEWS FROM http://www.immigration-law.com/
10/21/2005: AILA Confirms Following Details of Senate Judiciary Approvals Yesterday
According to the AILA, AILA has passed the following immigration proposals yesterday:
Impose a new $500 fee on immigrant visa petitions for the EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 categories.
Recapture unused employment-based visas from prior years for immediate allocation of up to 90,000/year. (Estimates indicate there are only 90,000-100,000 unused numbers to be tapped.)
Exempt spouses and minor children from counting against the annual cap on employment-based immigrant visas. (Estimates are that this would lead to an annual increase of 80,000-90,000 employment-based immigrant visas.)
Allow individuals to apply for adjustment of status before an immigrant visa is deemed currently available. (Of course, approval could not occur until the visa number is available.)
Recapture approximately 300,000 unused H-1B numbers dating back to FY 1991. As a result of Senator Feinstein's amendment, 30,000 rather than 60,000 would be available annually. (In other words, effectively raising the cap from 65,000 to 95,000 for at least 10 years.)
Impose a new fee on the recaptured H-1B visas so that the fees on the original 65,000 H-1B allotment remain unchanged but the additional 30,000 available annually carry an additional $500 fee.
Impose a new $750 fee on L-1 visas. (This was part of Senator Feinstein's amendment and was necessary to offset the reduction in revenue resulting from the limitation on recaptured H-1B numbers from 60,000 to 30,000.)
We agree with the AILA that these are not final bills and we have a long way to go to make these proposals into a reality. Businesses, academic institutions, and other stakeholders should keep working with their Congressional representatives to support the Senate Judiciary bill.