Key Policy Recommendations on Immigration

• Increase the number of H-1B visas and exempting from the annual cap H-1B workers who have degrees in needed fields from U.S. universities.

• Allow individuals with advanced STEM degrees from U.S. universities to immediately qualify for a green card to work and live in the United States.

  A high percentage of STEM graduate students at U.S. universities are foreign born, and America would benefit from encouraging them to stay and work here.

• Reduce the employment-based green card backlog by “recapturing” unused visas caused by processing delays from prior fiscal years, exempting the dependents of those sponsored from counting against the annual quota and eliminating the per-country limit.

  Employers often must wait several months to hire outstanding individuals. Further, foreign-born scientists and many engineers and researchers wait a decade or more just to receive a green card.

• Maintain flexibility in the high-skilled visa categories by avoiding overly bureaucratic rules that inhibit access to skilled workers.

• Grant highly educated individuals more flexibility for themselves and their spouses.

  Methods include:

  • Allowing H-1B visa holders to move between employers more easily;
  • Allowing all spouses of H-1B visa holders to work;
  • Permitting high-skilled visa holders to renew their visas from within the United States, subject to appropriate security precautions; and
  • Enabling foreign students to pursue a green card while on a student visa.

• Create a new visa classification for immigrant entrepreneurs.

  Those who are prepared to invest in the United States and are contractually bound to employ Americans are by definition job creators and should be welcomed.

• Create a new visa classification for long-term, nonseasonal workers.

  Such workers would be protected under U.S. employment laws and have “portability,” meaning they could leave to work for any employer that complies with the requirements of the program. The annual limit on less-skilled workers should fluctuate based on market forces, and workers should be able to earn green cards if they succeed in America.

• Expand the current H-2B temporary visa program for seasonal workers to meet current demand.

• Create a new temporary agricultural worker visa program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would allow workers to move easily among employers.

  Immigrants living in the United States illegally who have passed appropriate background checks, have worked in agriculture and continue to do so could become eligible for a green card based on their work in that industry.