USA EAGLE ACT CHANGES FOR GREEN CARD CAP

USA EAGLE ACT CHANGES FOR GREEN CARD CAP

Subject : International Relations

Context : US House of Representatives has reintroduced bipartisan legislation to eliminate per country cap on employment-based green card. This legislation is called as “EAGLE Act” and was introduced to benefit Indian IT professionals who are waiting over decades for green card.

Concept :

• EAGLE Act is called as “Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment Act”. It proposes to phase out limit of seven per cent per-country on employment-based immigrant visas.
• It also seeks to raise seven per cent per-country limit to 15 percent on family-sponsored visas.

How will it help Indians?

• Due to existing cap, a person from a large-population country like India with extraordinary qualifications, who could contribute to US economy & create jobs, waits behind person with lesser qualifications from small country. Thus, new legislation will reduce waiting time for Indian professionals.

Indian Migrants to United States

• Immigration from India to US started in early 19th century when Indian immigrants started to settle in communities along the West Coast.
• They originally arrived in small numbers but as new opportunities opened up in middle of 20th century, population grew larger in following decades.
• As of 2019, more than 2.7 million Indian immigrants reside in United States. Indian immigrants account for l6 percent of U.S. foreign-born population. Thus, they are second largest immigrant group in country after Mexicans.