H-1B & EB Advocates Continue to Push for Relief

As the House and Senate reconvene today for the final days of the 109th Congress, the chances of enacting H-1B visa and employment-based (EB) green card relief look increasingly slim. Despite behind-the-scenes efforts by immigration advocates and sympathetic members of Congress, reports suggest that the lame duck session is unlikely to offer an appropriate legislative vehicle for measures that would alleviate the caps and backlogs faced by high-skilled immigrants and their American employers.Plans by Republican leadership to pass a continuing resolution instead of completing appropriations legislation would preclude passage of H-1B and EB relief as part of fiscal 2007 spending bills. However, Congress may vote on a number of authorization bills this week, opening up a small possibility that H-1B and EB relief could be passed as part of authorization legislation.

About these ads