EAGLE Act

A bipartisan legislation was re-introduced in the US House of Representatives EAGLE Act to eliminate the per country cap on employment-based green card.

It is called the Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act, 2021.
The legislation needs to be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to the White House for the president to sign it into a law.
The bipartisan act seeks to phase out the seven per cent per-country limit on employment-based immigrant visas.
- It raises the per-country limit on family-sponsored visas from seven per cent to 15 per cent. It provides for a nine-year period for the elimination of this limit.
It provides for a nine-year period for the elimination of this limit.
With the EAGLE Act, the per-country cap would be removed, which may expedite the petitions for those applying for employment-based green cards.

Need for EAGLE Act

The seven per cent limit was introduced in the mid-20th century, which has led countries with relatively small populations to be allocated the same number of visas as a relatively large-population country.
A person from a large-population country with extraordinary qualifications who could contribute greatly to our economy and create jobs waits behind a person with lesser qualifications from a smaller country.
The backlogged Indian workers face an impossible wait of nine decades if they all could remain in the line.
- It implies that more than 200,000 petitions filed for Indians could expire as a result of the workers dying of old age before they receive green cards.
It will benefit the US economy by allowing American employers to focus on hiring immigrants based on their merit, not their birthplace.
It ensures that no country may receive more than 25 per cent of reserved visas and no country may receive more than 85 per cent of unreserved visas.

Think-tank Cato Institute had reported in March 2020 that 75 per cent of the backlog for employment‐based visas was made up of Indians.
With the EAGLE Act, the per-country cap would be removed, which may expedite the petitions for those applying for employment-based green cards.
However, since the highest number of applicants are from India and China, the EAGLE Act also seeks to reserve visas for ‘Lower Admission States’ for nine fiscal years (FY).
The bill also ensures that “no country may receive more than 25 per cent of reserved visas and no country may receive more than 85 per cent of unreserved visas,” in the nine fiscal years.

Predecessors to the EAGLE Act

The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act (HR1044) was passed by the House of Representatives in July 2019 with a resounding margin.
- The bill sought to implement similar provisions which would remove the seven per cent cap on per-country employee-backed immigrant visas.
Another version of the bill (S386) was passed by the Senate in the 116th session of the Congress.
According to the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association, the legislation failed because the differences between the two versions were not reconciled prior to the end of the session.

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