ISA Global

Trump government introduced a new basis for immigration laws replacing its 50 years old family-based system. The road is open for highly skilled labors, which is to be the new deciding factor to select immigrants.

The Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act introduced by US Senate and backed by US president Trump is aimed to halve the number of green cards currently issued by 50% to roughly 500,000 over the next ten years.

To achieve this target, a new “Merit-based” point system is introduced by the government, that would categorize the applicants on the basis of their skill priority index. This will increase the chances for highly skilled immigrants to make through the selection procedure.

With this, the 50 years long family-based immigration system, which formed the basis of US immigration, would be replaced by the highly-skilled professionals.

The recent statistic shows that Indians are the major source of immigration to America. In this scenario, the RAISE Act will inevitably and disproportionately impact Indian immigration to the U.S.

Immigrants, who move there with family, may have to suffer because of the point based system, as higher education, a stronghold on the English language, and certain other criteria form the basis of point scores. However, the new system favors young and highly educated applicants.

A sizable number of Indians living in the United States as permanent residents obtained their visas through a family member already living in the country. The new system would suddenly close off this longstanding avenue unavailable.

Also, the outlook of government on applications which are already undergoing the immigration procedure is still unclear. The bill is unlikely to pass in its current form as the Democrats and immigrant rights activist have shown their criticism to the proposed immigration norms.