House Pulls Bill That Would Have Changed US Green Card Policy
Responding to strong opposition, U.S. House leadership has pulled from consideration a bill intended to speed up the process through which non-citizens who hold employment-based visas can acquire a Permanent Resident Card, commonly called a green card.
There are roughly 140,000 individual green cards available each year. There are also family green cards granted to non-citizens who seek to join immediate family members living legally in the United States.
No more than 7 percent of the total green cards authorized annually can go to one country.
The “Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment Act of 2022,” or the “Eagle Act of 2022,” which was co-sponsored by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah), would eliminate per-nation individual green card caps, and raise the family green card cap from 7 to 15 percent….