Biden To Propose 8-Year Citizenship Path For Immigrants, What It Means For India

Joe Biden plans major changes from day one itself by unveiling a new immigration bill, which may provide an eight-year path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people who have migrated to the country.

New Delhi: Joe Biden who will be sworn in as the 46^th US President soon, plans to unveil a sweeping immigration bill on Day One of his administration. The bill may provide an eight-year path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people living in the country without legal status, a massive reversal from the Trump administration's harsh immigration policies.

This bill puts Biden was one of the major campaigns promises and it is especially important to Latino voters and other immigrant communities who suffered under President Donald Trump's restrictive policies and mass deportations.

According to the Washington Post, Biden’s legislative proposal will be sent to Congress on Wednesday itself, the legislation has a heavy focus on addressing the root causes of migration from Central America which was also a key part of Biden’s foreign policy portfolio when he served as vice president.

Some of the key features of the legislation are:

• The eight-year pathway - It will put millions of qualifying immigrants in a temporary status for five years. Following this it will grant them a green card once they meet certain requirements such as a background check and payment of taxes. Then they would be able to apply for citizenship three years later. But in order to qualify, immigrants must have been in the United States as of Jan. 1 said the Washington Post report.
• A temporary protected status program named – Dreamers - for migrants from disaster-ravaged nations could apply for a green card immediately.

According to the report, Biden’s bill will have three overarching pillars, the transition officials said: provisions to address the causes of migration, border management and a path to citizenship.

Recently, Trump administration replaced the existing lottery system for the selection of the visa beneficiaries with a newer system that will prioritise on the basis of wages. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.