Q. and A.: The Senate Immigration Bill
On Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings on a sweeping bill to overhaul the immigration system. The 844-page bill includes a pathway to citizenship for immigrants here illegally, new border security measures, a mandatory nationwide system to verify the legal status of newly hired workers, two new guest worker programs and a host of changes to the legal immigration system.
The sponsors said they hoped to win passage of the bill in the Senate by early June.
Readers were invited to send in questions for Julia Preston, the national immigration correspondent for The New York Times, and her responses follow. Some questions were edited for publication.
Q: Your news analysis, on April 17, said that "the bill would reduce the categories of family members eligible for green cards, eliminating siblings of United States citizens." I am a United States citizen, and I wasn't aware that I can currently get a green card for my sibling who is a foreigner. Could you please tell me more? — Former Soviet
A: Under the current system, the distribution of visas each year to foreigners applying to become legal permanent residents — in other words, to receive a green card — is done through a list of preferences. For foreigners applying for green cards based on their family ties (as opposed to their work skills), the fourth visa preference is for brothers and sisters of adult United States citizens. About 65,000 visas are available each year for those siblings.
The Senate bill would eliminate that sibling preference 18 months after the law takes effect. The senators have said that applications already submitted under that preference will be completed; no one with a valid application who is waiting in line will be left out.
The backlogs in that category are huge. The longest wait is for siblings from the Philippines. Visas are being issued this month to Filipino siblings who applied in July 1989.
Q: If the bill is passed in the Senate, does it have to pass the House next? If so, will the bill become law in more than a year, in your opinion? — Former Soviet
A: The Senate will consider the bill written by a bipartisan group of eight senators. Those senators have said they hope for a vote by late May or early June. The House of Representatives will consider separate legislation. A bipartisan group in the House has been working in closed-door negotiations on a comprehensive immigration bill, which appears to have many of the same elements as the Senate bill. The House bill has not been introduced yet.
It is too soon to predict when or even if either bill would pass or become law. We are at the beginning of a far-ranging, fast-paced and very lively debate in Congress on these proposals.
A: The main terms of the Dream Act are incorporated in the Senate bill. An expedited path to citizenship would be available for immigrants who arrived in the United States before they were 16 years old, graduated from high school in this country (or received an equivalent degree), and have attended at least two years of college or served four years in the military. Dreamers, as these immigrants call themselves, would be able to apply for registered provisional immigrant status. After five years, they would be able to apply for a green card, and as soon as they receive it, they would be eligible to apply for citizenship. Dreamers would not have to wait three years in green-card status for naturalization, as other provisional immigrants would have to do.
Unlike some versions of the Dream Act, in the Senate bill there is no age cap on immigrants who can apply, if they meet the other requirements.
The bill gives the Homeland Security secretary authority to create streamlined procedures for young people who have been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or D.A.C.A., under a program the Obama administration started in 2012. Those young immigrants would probably gain provisional status without having to go through the whole application process again.
Q: Is this bill going to make it any easier for people with advanced degrees from the U.S. to get permanent residency? I have an M.S. in finance (from U.S.) and am currently employed on H-1B. My wife has a Ph.D. in a STEM field —these include science, technology, engineering, mathematics — and is currently getting a postdoc, also on H1B. Is this bill going to help either one of us get permanent residency any sooner than the options that are available now? — A
A: The bill appears to offer many more opportunities for you and your wife to get permanent resident green cards than you have under the current system — depending on what country you and she are from. For immigrants hoping to go from H-1B temporary visas to green cards, the backlogs are particularly long for those who come from India and China.
Under the Senate bill, immigrants with a Ph.D. in any field would be exempt from the annual cap of 140,000 visas for employment-based green cards, and so would their spouses.
The bill also creates a new merit system, starting with 120,000 green cards a year to be granted on a point-system based on educational degrees and job skills, among other factors. In addition, starting on Oct. 1, 2014, fast-track visas will also be available under the merit system for immigrants who have been waiting in backlogs for employment-based visas for at least three years.
Q: What kind of process would undocumented immigrants be able to use to report to the IRS without incurring criminal prosecutions, since they presumably would not have filed federal income taxes for up to decades for some of them? Since they are undocumented, most probably shied away from registering with the IRS. But not filing taxes for many years is technically subject to prosecution. Since they would have to do it before the registered provisional immigrant status is in place, what kind of safety guarantees would they have if they came forward to solve that before they apply? — Buggy
A. Under the Senate bill, the I.R.S. would impose back-tax assessments based on a review of the information provided by undocumented immigrants applying for registered provisional status to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that will handle those applications. The immigrants would have to pay all taxes they owe, but they would not be subject to prosecution for failing to pay them.
There are no good estimates of how many immigrants applying for provisional status would owe unpaid taxes or how much they would owe. Even though most undocumented immigrants do not have valid Social Security numbers, many file tax returns using individual taxpayer identification numbers they can obtain from the I.R.S.
On Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings on a sweeping bill to overhaul the immigration system. The 844-page bill includes a pathway to citizenship for immigrants here illegally, new border security measures, a mandatory nationwide system to verify the legal status of newly hired workers, two new guest worker programs and a host of changes to the legal immigration system.
The sponsors said they hoped to win passage of the bill in the Senate by early June.
Readers were invited to send in questions for Julia Preston, the national immigration correspondent for The New York Times, and her responses follow. Some questions were edited for publication.
Q: Your news analysis, on April 17, said that "the bill would reduce the categories of family members eligible for green cards, eliminating siblings of United States citizens." I am a United States citizen, and I wasn't aware that I can currently get a green card for my sibling who is a foreigner. Could you please tell me more? — Former Soviet
A: Under the current system, the distribution of visas each year to foreigners applying to become legal permanent residents — in other words, to receive a green card — is done through a list of preferences. For foreigners applying for green cards based on their family ties (as opposed to their work skills), the fourth visa preference is for brothers and sisters of adult United States citizens. About 65,000 visas are available each year for those siblings.
The Senate bill would eliminate that sibling preference 18 months after the law takes effect. The senators have said that applications already submitted under that preference will be completed; no one with a valid application who is waiting in line will be left out.
The backlogs in that category are huge. The longest wait is for siblings from the Philippines. Visas are being issued this month to Filipino siblings who applied in July 1989.
Q: If the bill is passed in the Senate, does it have to pass the House next? If so, will the bill become law in more than a year, in your opinion? — Former Soviet
A: The Senate will consider the bill written by a bipartisan group of eight senators. Those senators have said they hope for a vote by late May or early June. The House of Representatives will consider separate legislation. A bipartisan group in the House has been working in closed-door negotiations on a comprehensive immigration bill, which appears to have many of the same elements as the Senate bill. The House bill has not been introduced yet.
It is too soon to predict when or even if either bill would pass or become law. We are at the beginning of a far-ranging, fast-paced and very lively debate in Congress on these proposals.
A: The main terms of the Dream Act are incorporated in the Senate bill. An expedited path to citizenship would be available for immigrants who arrived in the United States before they were 16 years old, graduated from high school in this country (or received an equivalent degree), and have attended at least two years of college or served four years in the military. Dreamers, as these immigrants call themselves, would be able to apply for registered provisional immigrant status. After five years, they would be able to apply for a green card, and as soon as they receive it, they would be eligible to apply for citizenship. Dreamers would not have to wait three years in green-card status for naturalization, as other provisional immigrants would have to do.
Unlike some versions of the Dream Act, in the Senate bill there is no age cap on immigrants who can apply, if they meet the other requirements.
The bill gives the Homeland Security secretary authority to create streamlined procedures for young people who have been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or D.A.C.A., under a program the Obama administration started in 2012. Those young immigrants would probably gain provisional status without having to go through the whole application process again.
Q: Is this bill going to make it any easier for people with advanced degrees from the U.S. to get permanent residency? I have an M.S. in finance (from U.S.) and am currently employed on H-1B. My wife has a Ph.D. in a STEM field —these include science, technology, engineering, mathematics — and is currently getting a postdoc, also on H1B. Is this bill going to help either one of us get permanent residency any sooner than the options that are available now? — A
A: The bill appears to offer many more opportunities for you and your wife to get permanent resident green cards than you have under the current system — depending on what country you and she are from. For immigrants hoping to go from H-1B temporary visas to green cards, the backlogs are particularly long for those who come from India and China.
Under the Senate bill, immigrants with a Ph.D. in any field would be exempt from the annual cap of 140,000 visas for employment-based green cards, and so would their spouses.
The bill also creates a new merit system, starting with 120,000 green cards a year to be granted on a point-system based on educational degrees and job skills, among other factors. In addition, starting on Oct. 1, 2014, fast-track visas will also be available under the merit system for immigrants who have been waiting in backlogs for employment-based visas for at least three years.
Q: What kind of process would undocumented immigrants be able to use to report to the IRS without incurring criminal prosecutions, since they presumably would not have filed federal income taxes for up to decades for some of them? Since they are undocumented, most probably shied away from registering with the IRS. But not filing taxes for many years is technically subject to prosecution. Since they would have to do it before the registered provisional immigrant status is in place, what kind of safety guarantees would they have if they came forward to solve that before they apply? — Buggy
A. Under the Senate bill, the I.R.S. would impose back-tax assessments based on a review of the information provided by undocumented immigrants applying for registered provisional status to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that will handle those applications. The immigrants would have to pay all taxes they owe, but they would not be subject to prosecution for failing to pay them.
There are no good estimates of how many immigrants applying for provisional status would owe unpaid taxes or how much they would owe. Even though most undocumented immigrants do not have valid Social Security numbers, many file tax returns using individual taxpayer identification numbers they can obtain from the I.R.S.
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