S. 1258, Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2011, would allow Liberian refugees to transition from Temporary Protected Status to permanent resident status, even though the conflict in Liberia has long since ended.
The bill would provide green cards to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) graduates from U.S. universities. Specifically, it would allow graduating students to convert their student visas into H-1B visas (exempting them from the numerical limitations) and later allowing them to adjust their status. Furthermore, it would allow a graduating student to extend their visa on an annual basis until their H-1B credentials have been certified.
H.R. 399, the STAPLE Act, would exempt aliens who earn a Ph.D degree in math, science, technology, or engineering at a United States institution from the numerical limitations on H-1B nonimmigrants. Specifically, this legislation would offer permanent residence status to doctors, teachers, and engineers, driving down wages and creating undue competition for high-skilled American workers.
S. 388, Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act of 2009, would allow an alien to return as an H-2B nonimmigrant worker without counting against the annual 66,000 cap if they had used an H-2B visa during one of the three previous fiscal years, effectively tripling the number of H-2B workers.
H.R. 2538, Defend the American Dream Act of 2007, would prohibit an employer that employs H1B workers from displacing a U.S. worker employed by the employer within the period beginning 180 days before and ending 180 days after the employer petitions to import an H1B and would mandate active recruitment of U.S. workers before importing an H1B worker.
The bill would cap annual issuance of L‐1 “intracompany transferee”/”specialized knowledge”
nonimmigrant visas at 35,000 (currently, no cap), but would clarify that this cap: (1) applies
only to principal aliens and not to their spouses or children; and (2) does not apply to an L‐
1 worker who is employed, or has received an offer of employment from, an institution of
higher education or a nonprofit research or governmental research organization;
• Would establish three years as the maximum period of authorized stay for an L‐1 worker;
The bill would “expedite” the importation of H-1B high-skill nonimmigrant workers by requiring the employer to submit to the Department of Labor the requisite labor condition application at the same time as the employer submits to DHS the petition for nonimmigrant admission of the H-1B worker.
To provide job creation and assistance, and for other purposes.
The bill would prohibit employers who employ H-1B high-skill nonimmigrant workers from transferring them from a worksite in one state to a worksite in another; would require employers of H-1Bs to share information exchanged with Federal agencies with prospective, current, and former H-1B workers upon request; would authorize the Department of Labor (DOL) to investigate applications that have clear indicators of fraud or misrepresentation, instead of simply checking for completeness and inaccuracies (as current law provides) and would eliminate the current statutory provision that requires t
S. 1397, the Skilled Worker Immigration and Fairness Act, would, among other provisions, increase the annual cap on H-1B high-skilled nonimmigrant worker visas from 65,000 to 115,000. Beginning in 2008, if the cap was met in any fiscal year, it would increase it by 20 percent, with a ceiling of 180,000 per year.
The bill would authorize adjustment to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status for aliens with E-2 “treaty investor” nonimmigrant visas only if certain capital investment levels are met and specified numbers of new jobs are created; would authorize 3,000 E-2 visas to be made available each fiscal year to principal aliens (i.e., no cap on spouses or children); and would grant LPR status to any E-2 nonimmigrant alien who has been present in the United States for at least five years, provided they meet the new criteria.