Public Description:
The bill would provide green cards to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) graduates from U.S. universities. Specifically, it would allow graduating students to convert their student visas into H-1B visas (exempting them from the numerical limitations) and later allowing them to adjust their status. Furthermore, it would allow a graduating student to extend their visa on an annual basis until their H-1B credentials have been certified. It would also allow high-skilled immigrants who receive venture capital funding and foreign-born entrepreneurs who start companies in the United States to obtain green cards and adjust their status. The net effect increases the number of foreign workers and upholds a system like EB-5 where wealthy foreigners can buy their way into U.S. residency should they invest a specified amount of money and create a specified number of jobs in the United States. In addition, this legislation would “recapture unused employment-based visas” between fiscal years 1992 and 2011 by establishing a formula for calculating the number of “unused visas” and adding them to the yearly cap (However, visas not allocated in a certain category in any given year are made available for other categories, so there really is no such thing as an "unused" visa) and set a 226,000 a year minimum for family-sponsored immigrants. The result of this legislation is a backdoor immigration increase amounting to thousands of visas a year. Finally, the legislation includes “DREAM Act” type legislation that would allow an illegal alien student enrolled in a United States university who is present on the date of enactment of this legislation and was 15 years old or younger when they entered the United States, to adjust their status to “nonimmigrant student.”
To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to promote innovation, investment, and research in the United States, and for other purposes.
