The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 18 and in the Senate on February 22.

Much has been written about how the bill would create a pathway to U.S. citizenship for DACA recipients, TPS holders, H-2A farmworkers and 11 million undocumented persons.

The bill also contains provisions which would make it easier and faster to get a green card through employment and family members.   The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 is 353 pages long.  It is doubtful whether the entire bill will be signed into law.  More likely, some of the provisions listed below will become law by being added to other legislation.

On this page, we highlight some of the significant changes that the bill would make to improve and expand legal immigration to the United States.

U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 Impact on Legal Immigration is divided into the following subtopics:

• EB Green Cards
• Temporary Visas
• Family Immigration
• Citizenship
• Child Status Protection Act
• Other Provisions

The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 would expand the number of persons who can get employment-based green cards, get rid of ridiculous per-country quotas and prevent children from aging-out while waiting for their priority dates to become current.

• The number of green cards available in the EB categories would be increased from 140,000 to 170,000 annually. The additional 30,000 green cards would be added to the EB-3 unskilled worker category.

• Anyone with an approved visa petition who has been waiting in line for over 10 years for their priority date to become current would no longer be subject to numerical limits. They would be permitted to apply for a green card immediately.  This would become effective 60 days after the bill is signed into law.

• Persons with Ph.D. degrees from U.S. universities in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) would be exempt from numerical limits.

• Numbers of unused employment-based green cards from 1992 to 2020 would be “recaptured”. It is estimated that this number exceeds 200,000.

• Spouses and children would no longer be counted against numerical green card limits.

• The 7% per-country quota would be eliminated starting on October 1, 2021.

• DHS would be given the authority to establish a 5-year pilot program to allow county or municipal executives to petition for up to 10,000 immigrant visas annually to support the region’s economic development strategy, provided employers in those regions certify that there are available jobs and that there are no U.S. workers to fill them.

• DHS and DOL would be permitted to issue regulations to temporarily halt the issuance of EB2 and EB3 green cards in areas of high unemployment.

Disclaimer: This newsletter is not intended to establish an attorney-client relationship. All information contained in this newsletter is generalized. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk.