A bipartisan bill designed to ease green card access for legal immigrants is on track to reach the House floor next week. The Bill seeks to phase out per-country caps on employment-based green cards and potentially lift annual caps on family-based green cards. Immigrants and immigration reformers have been requesting the changes for years as an avenue to address current and increasing backlogs in the US visa system. Caps on employment visas have fostered a detrimental impact on immigrants from India and China—now forced to wait decades to get a green card unlike their rest-of-the-world counterparts. The Senate passed a similar proposal with unanimous consent in 2020, but was ultimately unable to reconcile it with a House version before the congressional session ended.

With yet again another opportunity to potentially see a much-needed shift towards change in the US immigration system now is the time to act!

Writing a letter to your Representative and/or Senator is one of the most effective ways to move the legislation across the finish line before the end of the session. While it may be easier to simply retweet posts on twitter, click here to sign a petition, or call to tell them to vote yes, a letter sharing your personal story will have greater impact and the pressure needs to be kept up. Below you will find templates for a letter you can personalize and send.

 For Sending a Letter by Email to Your House Representative:

 You can find the name and website of your Representative by going to https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative. You can then click on your Representative’s website and find the button for Contact →Email Me.

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 For Sending a Letter by Email to Your Senator(s):

 You can find the name and website of your Senator(s) by going to https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm You can then click on your Senator’s information and find the button for Contact →provide your information and paste this message into the message box→ andrequest a response from your Senators.

 When addressing your email(s), you can use the following formats below:

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Dear Representative (last name):

 My name is __________, and I am writing this

letter to urge you to pass the EAGLE Act. This bill may not solve every immigration issue the United States is currently facing, but it ensures that high-skilled immigrants contributing to the country are treated equally, embodying a fundamental truth on which this country was built.

 I am a _____job title_____ and have been living and working in the United States pursuant to a temporary work visa since ____date____. I began my journey towards lawful permanent residence in ___year of priority date____. I remain hopeful that I might finally achieve my goal of permanent residence in this country, but the per country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrants keeps me stuck in limbo simply because of where I was born.

 I want to contribute to this country. My work in the field of ___________helps _______describe

the importance of your work to the US economy or society _______. I have done my best to comply with all the immigration rules of this country. I have been through ____ # of H-1B (or F-1, OPT, L-1, H-4, etc) ______ visa renewals over the years. Every time I want to travel to my home country, I have gone through a visa interview at a U.S. Consulate. The Department of Labor has already confirmed that my presence in the United States does not harm U.S. workers. I have a __master’s, bachelor’s____ degree in ___field of study___. Based on the statistics available, it is expected that I will have to wait decades for a green card to become available because I was born in ____. In contrast, an individual with the exact same education and job offer from almost any other country does not have any wait at all.

 Our current employment-based immigration system already has a merit-based component based on the five preference categories. But, the per-country limit has turned it into a discriminatory process where preference is given based on country of birth.

 The Senate has previously passed amended legislation to eliminate the per-country cap. The bill has previously been endorsed by Immigration Voice, Compete America Coalition, the Information Technology Industry Council, Google, Walmart, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,

National Association of Manufacturers, The Heritage Foundation, La Raza, and many others. This new bill may not fix the entire immigration system, but it would accomplish its purpose: making the system fairer.

 I urge you to join with thousands of other concerned individuals who are legally in this country and have waited patiently for so long to become lawful permanent residents. Please pass the EAGLE Act. Treating people fairly and equally is part of America’s founding creed. Let my merit be the deciding factor, not my country of birth. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Sincerely,

 ____Name_______

  

Dear Senator (last name):

 My name is __________, and I am writing this letter to urge you to pass the EAGLE Act. This bill may not solve every immigration issue the United States is currently facing, but it ensures that high-skilled immigrants contributing to the country are treated equally, embodying a fundamental truth on which this country was built.

 I am a _____job title_____ and have been living and working in the United States pursuant to a temporary work visa since ____date____. I began my journey towards lawful permanent residence in ___year of priority date____. I remain hopeful that I might finally achieve my goal of permanent residence in this country, but the per country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrants keeps me stuck in limbo simply because of where I was born.

 I want to contribute to this country. My work in the field of ___________helps _______describe

the importance of your work to the US economy or society _______. I have done my best to comply with all the immigration rules of this country. I have been through ____ # of H-1B (or F-1, OPT, L-1, H-4, etc) ______ visa renewals over the years. Every time I want to travel to my home country, I have gone through a visa interview at a U.S. Consulate. The Department of Labor has already confirmed that my presence in the United States does not harm U.S. workers. I have a __master’s, bachelor’s____ degree in ___field of study___. Based on the statistics available, it is expected that I will have to wait decades for a green card to become available because I was born in ____. In contrast, an individual with the exact same education and job offer from almost any other country does not have any wait at all.

 Our current employment-based immigration system already has a merit-based component based on the five preference categories. But, the per-country limit has turned it into a discriminatory process where preference is given based on country of birth.

 The Senate has previously passed amended legislation to eliminate the per-country cap. The bill has previously been endorsed by Immigration Voice, Compete America Coalition, the Information Technology Industry Council, Google, Walmart, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,

National Association of Manufacturers, The Heritage Foundation, La Raza, and many others. This new bill may not fix the entire immigration system, but it would accomplish its purpose: making the system fairer.

 I urge you to join with thousands of other concerned individuals who are legally in this country and have waited patiently for so long to become lawful permanent residents. Please pass the EAGLE Act. Treating people fairly and equally is part of America’s founding creed. Let my merit be the deciding factor, not my country of birth. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Sincerely,

 ____Name_______

 

By: Rahul Reddy & Juanita Deaver

Rahul Reddy is the founding partner of Reddy Neumann Brown PC He founded our firm in 1997 and has over 23 years practicing employment-based immigration. Rahul‘s vast knowledge of the complex immigration system renders him an invaluable resource and an expert in the field. His personal experience with the immigration system has made him empathetic to each of his client’s cases and empowers him to help others achieve the American Dream.

Juanita Deaver is an Associate Attorney in the I-140 and AOS Department, where she assists clients in the middle and later stages of the green card process.