On May 21st, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved a comprehensive immigration reform bill known as the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. An amendment to this bill informally known as the “Hatch Amendment”, named for Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), includes a limited expansion of the H-1B visa program for high-tech workers. At some point this summer, the bill will go before the entire Senate for debate.
Although it is uncertain at this time whether or not the bill has the support of 60 senators (the minimum required to end a filibuster), experts have stated that this bill represents the strongest effort in decades to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. The bill has gained bipartisan support through the efforts of the “Gang of Eight”, which includes leaders from both political parties and both branches of the United States Congress. It offers undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. before December 31, 2011 a “pathway to citizenship” and includes the DREAM Act and AgJOBS Act. In addition, the bill also includes numerous provisions to increase border security.
The Hatch Amendment is of particular interest to many employers, including technology companies based in Colorado. The amendment raises the base cap of H-1B visas to 115,000, although the maximum allowed will remain at 180,000; this cap would “float” based on the state of the economy. Also, the amendment allows the State Department to grant work authorization on a country-by-country basis to the spouses of H-1B workers. Finally, the amendment lessons restrictions placed on employers who hire H-1B workers; while the original bill restricted all companies from displacing U.S. workers within 90 days of filing an H-1B visa petition, the restriction now only applies to H-1B-dependent employers, defined as those whose H-1B employees exceed 15% of their total workforce. In addition, the Hatch amendment removes the requirement that employers first offer tech jobs to U.S. workers; now all companies would simply have to make a good-faith effort to first hire U.S. workers.
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