Had it been passed, the Act would benefit hundreds of Indians who have been in the US on H and L visas for work permits. Since there was a cap on the per-country green cards, the Indian migrants had been facing huge backlogs in getting green cards or work visas.
THE EAGLE ACT
The Eagle Act, which is also known as Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment Act 2022, was introduced in the US House of Representatives by Zoe Lofgren, seeking to modify the requirements for work-related visas and phase out the per-country caps on employment-based green cards.
The US issue 140,000 green cards for employment in the country, with most applicants from India, but it comes with a cap. Of these, up to 7 per cent is provided to a single country. The processing time is long and the backlogs are huge. According to a report, the backlog was is over 80 per cent for Indians and the Chinese.
The per-country cap has hindered the process and removing the cap would have allowed a faster processing of the applicants.
If in force, the Eagle Act would let the employers to hire international professionals for their merit. With this Act, the eligible professionals from other countries wouldn’t get excluded.
The Act prohibits an employer from advertising a vacancy only for H-1B applicants.
