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发帖数: 12276 | 1
Removing Bottlenecks in the Visa Process
By Felicia Escobar, Senior Policy Advisor for the Domestic Policy Council
Thank you for signing the petition "Allow Seriously Backlogged EB2/EB3
Beneficiaries with Their I-140 Approved to File I-485 and Apply for EAD & AP
." The Obama Administration is committed to removing bottlenecks in the
current process so that both applicants and businesses can meaningfully
participate in our existing immigrant and nonimmigrant visa systems. Due to
an outdated visa system that only Congress can change, too many of the world
's brightest entrepreneurial minds are not allowed to come to the United
States or stay here and thrive. Some have come to the United States,
received training at our excellent universities, and then been required to
leave. Others simply have been unable to find a path here in the first place.
Today, many I-140 approved beneficiaries from countries such as China and
India must wait several years for a visa to become available because of
statutory limits on the number of visas that can be issued to nationals of a
particular country in a given fiscal year. The proposal outlined in this
petition asks that beneficiaries of approved I-140 immigrant worker
petitions be allowed to apply for adjustment of status while they wait for
visas to become available, which would allow the accompanying interim
benefits of an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) and Advance Parole --
in other words, the ability to work in the United States and to leave the
United States and return while awaiting a visa. Unfortunately, the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) cannot change the statutory
requirement that a visa must be immediately available at the time an
individual is allowed to file an application to adjust their status. This
proposed reform can only be made by Congress through changes to the law.
Over the past year, top Administration officials have traveled throughout
the country to talk with thousands of entrepreneurs and small business
owners as part of listening sessions organized by the President's Council on
Jobs and Competitiveness, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the White
House Business Council, and the White House Startup America Initiative. The
message we hear is resounding: our Nation's immigration system is broken
and must be reformed.
The President has outlined his vision for restoring responsibility and
accountability to the broken immigration system in the Blueprint for
Immigration Reform (pdf), which outlines the challenges we must tackle and
the solutions we must implement if we are to build a 21st century
immigration system. The President believes that this will require:
Continuing to make border security the responsibility and priority of the
federal government;
Holding accountable businesses that break the law by exploiting undocumented
workers;
Making those living in the United States illegally take responsibility for
their actions, before they can get on a path to legalization, by passing a
background check, paying fines, paying taxes, and getting right with the law
; and
Strengthening our economic competiveness by creating a legal immigration
system that meets our 21st century economic and security needs. This
includes making reforms to the existing employment- and family-based
immigration system, including existing caps to ensure successful high-
skilled immigrants are able to remain in the U.S. permanently.
The President is willing to sit down with any Congressional leader --
Republican, Democrat, or Independent -- who shares his commitment to fixing
the broken immigration system so that it meets America's economic and
security needs. We need leaders who are willing to engage in a constructive
policy debate on this important issue.
As we continue to build support for legislative reform, the Administration
will continually look for ways to improve the current immigration system,
and we have proposed several important changes in the past several months.
Recently, USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas joined the President's Council
on Jobs and Competiveness in Pittsburgh to announce the "Entrepreneurs in
Residence" initiative, which will utilize industry expertise to strengthen
USCIS policies and practices surrounding immigrant investors, entrepreneurs,
and workers with specialized skills, knowledge or abilities.
You can continue to act and help the Administration make lasting change to
immigration. President Obama has called for a national conversation on
immigration reform that builds a bipartisan consensus to fix our broken
immigration system so it works for America's 21st century economy. But he
can't do it alone. Over the last several months, dozens of communities have
answered his call, holding meetings with local business leaders, faith
leaders, law enforcement leaders and others to discuss the changes necessary
to create a 21st century immigration system. He is asking you and other
Americans to continue the conversation in your community by hosting a
roundtable. Find out more and tell us about your roundtable at http://www.whitehouse.gov/immigration.
Thank you for making your voice heard. We greatly appreciate your interest
and hope that you continue to share your views with the Administration.
Check out this response on We the People.
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