The Protect Vulnerable Immigrant Youth Act (S. 1885 and H.R. 4285) would eliminate employment-based visa caps on abused, abandoned, and neglected immigrant children, known as Special Immigrant Juveniles (SIJ). The bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) on June 8, 2023, and in the House of Representatives by Representative Jimmy Gomez (D-California) on June 22, 2023.
The Protect Vulnerable Immigrant Youth Act would:
- exclude the Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) visa from the EB-4 preference category, and
- improve the access to permanent legal status for eligible SIJs without having to wait in the EB-4 backlog for a green card.
As a consequence of these changes, more visas would become available for religious workers, members of the U.S. Armed Forces, and others who are waiting in the EB-4 visa category backlog, which has grown to approximately five years.
Discussion
Every year, the U.S. sets aside only 140,000 employment-based green cards for workers from all around the world. Additionally, the State Department and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have the authority to add the unused family-based green cards of one year – capped at 226,000 annually – to the employment-based category of the following year. Hence, in Fiscal Year 2023, the number of available employment-based green cards rose to 281,507. Regardless of the number, the available employment-based green cards are allocated based on five different preferences:
- The available green cards are first distributed among those who qualify for first preference, known as EB-1. The first preference category is reserved for persons with extraordinary abilities, outstanding professors and researchers, and multinational executives.
- The remaining employment-based green cards are distributed among those who qualify for second preference, EB-2, which includes professionals holding an advanced degree and people with exceptional ability.
- The remaining green cards are reserved for third preference individuals, or EB-3, who are skilled workers, professionals, and other workers whose positions require less than two years of training.
- The fourth preference, EB-4, is composed of religious workers, special immigrant juveniles, members of the U.S. Armed Forces, and others.
- Finally, the remaining employment-based green cards are distributed among immigrant investors, who are eligible for the EB-5 category.
Around 7% of the total employment-based green cards are allocated among EB-4 applicants because the first three preference categories absorb the vast majority of the available visas. As a consequence, many EB-4 applicants have to wait years before a green card becomes available for them. According to the Department of State’s (DOS) Visa Bulletin for April 2023, the EB-4 category reached a backlog of more than five years.
In turn, this backlog has affected many religious workers and their congregations. Most religious workers first enter the United States with R visas, which have a duration of up to 30 months and are renewable for up to five years. In other words, due to the current EB-4 backlog, which exceeds five years, the visas of many religious workers will permanently expire before they become eligible for green cards. This situation has left many congregations across different denominations in precarious situations.
Conclusion
Excluding Special Immigrant Juveniles (SIJ) from the EB-4 visa category would improve their access to permanent legal status and allow them to avoid waiting in the EB-4 backlog. As a consequence, many religious workers, members of the U.S. Armed Forces, and others in the EB-4 backlog would become eligible for a green card sooner. This will yield benefits to religious workers, their families, congregations, and other EB-4 eligible workers, who will receive reduced wait times and more certainty about their futures.