Dear Friends,

As you may know, the Senate is currently drafting a major immigration reform bill right now and we are actively working on the provisions that would help us get our visa bulletin dates current by solving the backlogs and retrogression issues through the immigration bill. There is also additional development on the high-skilled immigration bill. The bill for removing per-country ceilings H.R.3012 that passed the House in 2011 with 97% majority and almost passed the Senate last year has been re-introduced in the new Congress as H.R.633. This is a strong indication that our issue is still on the fore-front of high-skilled immigration issues. We applaud Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Rep. Lofgren, and Rep. Labrador for introducing H.R.633 – Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2013.

In order to make sure that our provisions including the per-country ceiling removal and other measures are included in the Immigration Bill of 2013, we need all of you to step up and help us do it. The IV core team cannot do this alone. We need your help.

We urgently need to focus on 2 action items. First, register for the D.C. advocacy event to be held on March 17 – 19. Make travel plans in advance and join your fellow IV members in actual advocacy efforts to lobby Congress to include our high skilled immigration provisions. You can be a part of history-making and have the satisfaction of doing something for yourself and your family. Secondly, as you may know, we have paid advocacy efforts also going on in D.C. and we receive professional help and counsel from lobbyists. In order to keep those efforts well-funded during this effort, we need your help to pitch in and make donations. You can see the wonderful work being done yourself if you attend our event in D.C. on March 17-19.

Please do not assume that the legal immigration problem will be solved when the 2013 immigration bill passes automatically. We have to ensure that we are not forgotten. Comprehensive bills are too big and there are many more sensitive issues and if we are not careful, we will be left behind. Already we have the last DOS visa bulletin indicate that EB2 dates may not move forward at all between now and September.

So let’s be active and let’s be careful and not miss this opportunity.

Thank you,
Aman Kapoor
Immigration Voice