Short Note: Proposed Bill for Merit Based System of Visa in United States

What is the new proposed Bill for Merit-Based System in United States? How it may affect Indians?

The Bill for Merit Based System, which is to later take the shape of the American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act, has been introduced by two US Senators-Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia. Its main aim is to give priority visas to the people (mainly youth) who have better educational degrees, good job offer and proficiency in the English language.

Method of Priority Decisions

A huge number of criteria have been listed for granting the priority visas. These are:

• Education-An applicant for visa who has a US high school diploma or foreign equivalent earns one point, a foreign bachelor’s degree gets five points while same degree in US gets six points. Foreign doctorate degree earns a 10 point and US degree gets 13 points.
• Age preference-The persons in the age group of 26 to 30 gets 10 points, 22 to 25 get eight points and 18 to 21 get six points. But points keep reducing after the age of 31 and minors get the least preference.
• English proficiency-Persons getting higher percentile earn greater points and the ones below 60 percentile do not get any preference.
• Job offer-A person having a job offer that has a pay equal to more than 300% of the median household income in a state. While people with very low income jobs are not given preference.

Effect on India

Earlier Indians had two routes of going to US. One was the elite group who had to apply for H1B visa and the other was family tie based immigration. The situation will now take a U-turn with the elite getting a better opportunity to settle there than the ones going through the family ties. But this will have a negative effect on the Indian economy as it will increase the chance of brain drain. It will also have an effect on the Indians who easily found small jobs in the US.