Public Description:
H.R. 1930, the Securing Knowledge, Innovation, and Leadership (SKIL) Act, would more than double the number of employment-based (EB) immigrant visas available annually; would exempt EB immigrants seeking admission to work in “shortage occupations”; would vastly increase the cap on H-1B visas (i.e., a minimum cap of 115,000 per year, with 20 percent increases authorized in any year following a year in which the cap was met), but would eliminate statutory provisions authorizing a reduction in this cap; would create various permanent exemptions from numerical caps on admission for “high skill” aliens (e.g., aliens with graduate degrees from U.S. universities; aliens with graduate degrees in the sciences or math who have been working in a related field in the U.S. for at least three years, etc.); would extend the authorized stay of L-1 “intracompany transferee/specialized knowledge” nonimmigrants (no cap on these visas) for whom applications for LPR status are pending, and, in so doing, would, for all intents and purposes, make their employment permanent, thus taking more jobs away from U.S. workers; and would expand eligibility for student visas.
