10,500 USA Work Visas for Irish Profesionals Proposed

USA Senator Scott Brown has introduced an immigration bill that will include Irish nationals in the E3 visa program. The Bill, if approved, will allow 10,500 work visas for Irish nationals with college degrees renewable after every two years.

Currently Chile is allowed work visas for 1,400 professionals each year. Australia gets 10,500 work visas whereas Singapore receives 5,400 visas for its professionals. However these countries have signed free trade agreements with United States of America.  On the other hand, Ireland does not have any such trade agreement with USA.

The number of Irish receiving the green cards has dropped in the recent years. Although Ireland has benefited on a number of occasions due to temporary exemption programs introduced on a number of occasions.

For instance, in 1990, 48,000 green cards out of 120,000 were reserved for Irish applicants as a result of a program created by Senator Bruce Morrison to include those who were left out of a previous amnesty program.

Representative Mike Honda, Immigration Task Force Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, is of the opinion that nationals of any single country should not be preferred. “I would not support Senator Brown’s standalone bill to add Ireland to the E-3 visa program,” he said.

Michael Innis-Jimenez is a professor at the University of Alabama and also an expert on Latino and Labour issues believes that focusing on just one ethnic group won’t fill the high and low-skilled gaps in the American workforce.

“Although I admire Scott’s advocacy for an extremely vibrant and influential ethnic and national group within his constituency of Massachusetts, the underlying problem is that the immigration system needs a complete overhaul,” Michael Innis-Jimenez said.

USA immigration system requires a complete overhaul and it should be based on USA economic requirements without favouring any ethnic community or country.

The statistical data shows that 66 percent of the green cards issued to the family members and only 14 percent green cards issued because of employment. Whereas, major portion of  green cards should be issued to professionals based on their contribution to economic prosperity of the country.

 

Tags: Australia, Chile, E3 Visa Program, Green Card, Ireland, United States of America, USA, USA immigration