New Delhi: After announcing Kamala Harris as Vice-Presidential running mate, Joe Biden has announced another good news for the Indians. If voted to power in the November general elections, a Biden administration will reform the H-1B visa system and work towards eliminating the country-quota for Green Cards, his campaign said on Saturday.

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The administration will also take steps to stem the rising tide of hate and bigotry, address the security needs of house of worship, eliminate language barriers and honour the diversity and contributions of Indian-Americans, it said. This is for the first time that a Democratic presidential candidate has come out with an exclusive policy document for Indian-Americans. There are 1.3 million eligible Indian-American voters across eight battleground states.

Biden will support family-based immigration and preserve family unification as a core principle of our immigration system, which includes reducing the family visa backlog, his campaign said. "He will increase the number of visas offered for permanent, work-based immigration based on macroeconomic conditions and exempt from any cap recent graduates of PhD programmes in STEM fields," the campaign said.

"And, he will support first reforming the temporary visa system for high-skill, specialty jobs to protect wages and workers, then expanding the number of visas offered and eliminating the limits on employment-based Green Cards by country, which have kept so many Indian families in waiting for too long," it said. According to the policy document, Biden will restore and defend the naturalisation process for Green Card holders. A Green Card allows a non-US citizen to live and work permanently in America.

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The policy said that Biden will end workplace raids and protect other sensitive locations from immigration enforcement actions. As a largely immigrant community, but in some cases with American roots reaching back generations, Indian-Americans know firsthand the strength and resilience that immigrants bring to the US, the campaign said.

"But President Trump has waged an unrelenting assault on our values and our history as a nation of immigrants. It's wrong, and it stops when Biden is president," it alleged. "Biden will rescind Trump's Muslim ban on day one and reverse the detrimental asylum policies that are causing chaos and a humanitarian crisis at our border, the campaign said.

What is H-1B Visa?

The H-1B is a visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H) that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.

Started by former President George Bush, it was intended to help American firms deal with labour shortages in rapidly growing jobs that require specialised skills, such as in software programming, research, and engineering.

An H-1B visa holder can stay for three to six years, seek permanent residency in the US and can buy or sell the property.

(With PTI inputs)