Bipartisan Legislation Reforms Employment-Based
H-1B and Student Visas, Increases Access to Employment-Based Green
Cards, and Promotes STEM Education
U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Marco
Rubio (R-Fla.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) today introduced legislation,
the Immigration Innovation (I2) Act of 2013, to bring long-overdue
reforms to the nation’s immigration laws for high-skilled workers. The
bill focuses on areas vital to ensuring the United States can maintain
its competitiveness in the global economy: the quantity of
employment-based nonimmigrant visas (H-1B visas), allowing for their
growth depending on the demands of the economy while making reforms to
protect workers; increased access to green cards for high-skilled
workers by expanding the exemptions and eliminating the annual per
country limits for employment based green cards; and reforming the fees
on H-1B and green cards so those fees can be used to promote American
worker retraining and education.