Press Release: Partnership Applauds House Passage of Bill to Prevent Decades-Long Wait Times for Employment Visas

The Partnership for a New American Economy is encouraged by yesterday’s broad bipartisan show of support for smarter immigration laws, marked by the House’s 389-15 vote to pass the Fairness for High Skilled Immigration Act (H.R. 3012). The bill will eliminate the arbitrary country caps on employment-based visas – caps that cause potential wait times of up to 70 years for new petitioners from India and China – and ensure all employment-based green cards will be awarded on a market-driven, first-come-first-served basis. Because this bill is a commonsense measure to help American companies recruit and keep the talent they need to compete and grow, the Partnership urges the Senate to pass it quickly. And Congress should build on this bipartisan momentum by passing additional visa reforms that will further boost U.S. job creation, including providing green cards to foreign-born graduates of American universities in essential fields, creating a visa for immigrant entrepreneurs, and streamlining and expanding guest worker programs.