Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah introduced the S 153 bill. Along with Senator Hatch, Senators Jeff Flake from Arizona, Marco Rubio from Florida, Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota, Chris Coons from Delaware, and Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut sponsored the bill.

S 153 is being nicknamed the Immigration Innovation, or the “I-Squared” bill because it intends to expand the number of H-1B work visas for the tech industry.

The purpose behind the S 153 bill is to increase the number of highly skilled foreign workers in the STEM fields. It also helps ensure that foreign students studying in the U.S. will be able to find a job, and workers’ families will be able to get work if they need to. The reform will use the fees from the additional visas to promote STEM education and worker retraining for U.S. citizens.

Highlights of the Proposal:

Employment-Based Non-immigration H-1B Visas:

• Increase the H-1B Visa cap from 65,000 to 115,000
• Allow the cap to reach up to 195,000 applications for the H-1B Visa in years of high demand
• Remove the limits on immigrants with advanced STEM degrees
• Allows spouses of the visa holders to seek work
• Ease restrictions on changing jobs for H-1B Visa holders
• Establish grace period for foreign workers to change jobs for their worker mobility

Student Visas:

• Allow dual intent for foreign students at U.S. programs

Employment-Based Green Card:

• Enables unused green card numbers to be redistributed to immigrants who are waiting for their visas
• Exempt certain people from the employment-based green card cap including advanced STEM-degree holders, persons with extraordinary skills and outstanding professors and researchers
• Eliminate annual per-country limits

Employment-Based Green Card-Holders’ family:

• Exempt the dependents of visa holders from visa caps
• Adjust per-country caps for family-based immigration visas

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The bipartisan S 153 bill increases companies’ ability to hire foreign workers with advanced degrees from U.S. institutions in STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. These graduates can be hired by an unlimited number. Currently, only the first 20,000 of H-1B applications from people with STEM degrees are exempted.

The S 153 bill would also increase the H-1B Visa cap from 65,000 to an amount between 115,000 and 300,000. The cap is a shifting cap, which means that it would shift upwards or downwards depending on whether visas run out before the end of the year, or if there were visas left over from the previous year.

The number of total immigrants welcomed into America due to the S 153 bill will be much higher than 300,000 because immigrant worker’s family members are not counted in the visa cap. This would mean more jobs for foreign workers, because family members would be allowed to seek job opportunities in America with the passing of the S 153 bill.

Immigration Innovation came about after more and more skilled immigrants returned home when startups in Silicon Valley were unable to hire them. The bill is a little controversial because of American citizens worry that the bill will harm their ability to find a job, but overall, both parties are expected to support the S 153 bill.

Full Text of the bill: Link