Section by Section Summary of the Border Security ... - Siskind, Susser

Section 203(c) of the INA which covers the green card lottery is replaced with a newsection on Merit- based immigrants. During the first four years after enactment, the meritsystem will not be used, but the numbers allocated for the merit-based system will insteadbe added to the EB-3 category. Beginning in year five, half of the merit-based numbers willgo to applicants with the highest number of points in the new Tier 1 and half will go tothose with the highest number of points in Tier 2. Unused numbers in Tier 1 will berecaptured in the following year with 2/3 going to Tier 1 and 1/3 available to either Tier.Unused numbers in Tier 2 will be recaptured in the following year with 2/3 going to Tier 2and 1/3 available to either.Tier 1 point systemEducation – 15 points for a doctorate degree, 10 points for a master’s degree, 5 points for abachelors degree.Employment – up to 20 points available; 3 points for each year working in a zone 5occupation in the US; 2 points for each year working in a zone 4 job in the US. Zones arebased on Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network (O*NET) classifications.Employment tied to education – if the job is related to one’s education, zone 5 jobs will getan applicant 10 points and zone 4 jobs get an applicant 8 points.Entrepreneurship – Business owners get 10 points for employing at least 2 employees in azone 4 or 5 job.High Demand Jobs – 10 points for working full time or having a full time offer in a highdemand occupation.Civic Involvement – 2 points if an applicant has attested to working a significant amount ofcommunity serviceEnglish – scoring 80+ on TOEFL or a similar test is worth 10 pointsSiblings and married sons and daughters of US citizens – Siblings of US citizens or marriedkids over 31 get 10 pointsAge – 8 points for being between 18 and 24; 6 points for being between 25 and 32; 4 pointsfor being between 33 and 37.Country of Origin – People from countries with fewer than 50,000 people given green cardsannually over the last five years get 5 points.Tier 2 point systemEmployment experience – 2 points for each year the alien has been lawfully employed in theUS (up to 20 points)Full time employment or an offer of full time employment in a high demand tier 2 job isworth 10 points and a job or job offer in a zone 1 or zone 2 job is worth 10 points.Caregiver – Working as a primary caregiver is worth 10 points.