India-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democrat, and Republican Larry Bucshon introduced the Eliminating Backlogs Act of 2023 in US House of Representatives to ensure that the United States is properly utilizing employment-based visas currently allocated each year under existing federal immigration law.
“This legislation would give greater flexibility to use existing allotted work visas that employers desperately need”, the law makers said.
In support of the bill, Krishnamoorthi elaborated “Even as our country’s high-skilled immigration system helps us draw top talent from around the world, current law caps the number of employment-based visas available based on workers’ country of origin, leaving thousands of visas that would otherwise help our economy, unused”.
In his address, Dr Bucshon cited the scope of current applicable federal immigration law to ensure the US workforce can meet the demands of the economy in Indiana and across the country. He cautioned “Unfortunately, bureaucratic policies and delays have prevented hundreds of thousands of these visas from being used, despite a serious need for more skilled workers across our nation.”
The proposed legislation aims to end country-based discrimination in high-skilled immigration to ensure the use of every allotted visa to draw skilled workers from across the globe to help strengthen the US economy, according to the release.
Every year Congress allows for a set number of foreign nationals with specific skills and training to come to the US for work. This helps ensure that American businesses have access to the skilled labor force they need to succeed.
Each nation is capped at receiving only seven per cent of the allotted employment-based slots in any year. Due to this per-country limitation and bureaucratic delays, US immigration officials failed to utilize approximately 9,100 employment-based visas in FY2020 and over 66,000 in FY2021.
