FIIDS report urges US Senators to pass Fairness of High Skilled Immigrants Act

India Post News Service
The Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) on October 23 submitted analysis and recommendation on pending Fairness for High Skill Immigrants bills S.386 and HR.1044 to US Senators.
In this analysis, FIIDS provided a background of the bills, their merits to America and addressed concerns. It identified that the regulation governing “country cap”, is the root cause of the problem and proposes potential solutions to encourage lawmakers to address the issue.

In its recommendations, FIIDS recognizes the concerns about Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 raised by lawmakers and addresses them.
In the analysis, FIIDS presented that excessive delays in the processing of permanent residency applications contribute to America’s loss of revenue, market leadership and competitive edge. The case of work-visa holders from India clearly illustrates the nature, substance and details of the impediments to legal immigration in America.

Work-based immigration is a great way to attract the right talent into the American economy, however this provision is currently impeded by annual country cap regulations in the processing of permanent residency. Current immigration laws were designed well before rapid technological changes became the hallmark of the American economy. As a result, these are not designed to support recent waves of immigration, triggered by the needs of the American industry for high levels of expertise and skills.

FIIDS recommends the following immediate steps while a more comprehensive approach evolves: remove country cap for skilled immigrants on a work visa; treat skills-based immigration as different from family-based immigration; and disallow the counting of dependents of primary visa holders in the aggregate country cap count.
FIIDS reported that the delays in GC processing are causing a talent drain. For example, several Indian immigrant entrepreneurs in the US have returned to India, to establish successful start-ups in their home countries.

The most common reason for their return is the restrictive US employment-based immigration policy that does not offer permanent residency. One of the many success stories of such a “reverse brain drain” is the case of Kunal Bahl, who has a business degree from the University of Pennsylvania and landed a job at Microsoft but was refused a work visa. He returned to India, partnered with his friend Rohit Bansal and launched SnapDeal, an online retailer.

FIIDS also reported a negative impact American universities. FIIDS found that Indian students in the United States are the second largest group of foreign students but their numbers have slowed to a 5.4 per cent growth in 2017-18, a five-year low (Nanda, 2018; Redden, 2018). The commonly cited reasons are work-visa restrictions and permanent residency issues.
FIIDS urged senators, especially Senator Durbin, to support the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 in the US Senate as the first resounding step toward a resolution.