The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013

Cozen O'Connor
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A bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators on Tuesday (April 16, 2013) introduced the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, an 844-page bill that aims to bolster border security and seeks to provide some of the nation’s 11 million undocumented people with a path to citizenship.  A brief summary issued by the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association (AILA) is below.   S. 744 details: 

  • Can become legal.  Allow noncitizens who are unlawfully present and who entered the U.S. before December 31, 2011, to adjust status to that of Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI).  Eligible applicants would be required to pay a penalty and back taxes.  Individuals in RPI status would receive work authorization and may travel abroad.  They would also become eligible to apply for LPR status after 10 years, and can apply for naturalization 3 years after acquiring a green card.
  • Family.  Move the current FB-2A category into the immediate relative classification, allow for derivatives of immediate relatives, eliminate the FB-4 category, cap the age of eligibility of married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens at 31, and bring back the V visa.
  • Employment.  Exempt from the quota:  EB-1 immigrants, doctoral degree holders, physicians who have completed the foreign residency requirement, and derivatives.  Add a new “EB-6" category for entrepreneurs.
  • Temporary.  Create a W-1 visa for lesser-skilled workers, a W-2 visa for aliens coming to the U.S. temporarily to perform agricultural services or labor under a written contract, and a W-3 visa for “at-will” workers with an offer of full-time employment in an agricultural occupation.
  • Asylum.  Eliminate the one-year filing deadline and authorize asylum officers to grant asylum during credible fear interviews.
  • E-verify.  Require all employers to be on the system after 5 years.
  • H-1B.  Increases the quota to a floor of 110,000 and a ceiling of 180,000, increases the U.S. advanced degree exemption to 25,000, but limits it to STEM graduates, adds a recruitment requirement for all H-1B labor condition applications involving a detailed posting on an Internet site designed by the Labor Department, adds a non-displacement attestation, changes the prevailing wage formula, provides EADs for spouses, and adds a 60-day grace period after an H-1B has been terminated from his or her job.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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