Wednesday, July 3, 2013

HOUSE STARTS MOVING: SKILLS ACT PASSES

The House Judiciary Committee has passed the Supplying Knowledge Based Immigrants and Lifting Levels of STEM Visa Act (SKILLS Act).  Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) sponsored the SKILLS Act.  He has 20 co-sponsors. 

The SKILLS Act would nearly triple the H-1B cap and also increase employment-based green card numbers.  Notably, Sec. 110 of the Act sets aside 4,000 immigrant visas for healthcare occupations, including nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and other allied healthcare workers who work in rural or undeserved areas.  These immigrant visas are immediately available and not subject to retrogression.  

This is the first step toward a House CIR bill.  The House is expected to spend the summer debating, proposing  and amending a variety of provisions.  Together these provisions will become the House CIR bill.  

The House may administratively decide to have several smaller bills, rather than one large CIR bill, as has been done in the Senate.  It remains to be seen if this strategy proves to be successful.

1 comment:

  1. Is this bill good news for US-trained RNs? My employer applied for my EB-3 last month. Will this bill shorten the 6-year retrogression to get the green card?

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