Skilled Immigration Reform: Will 2015 Be the Year?

On January 13, 2015 Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Chris Coons (D-DE), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the Immigration Innovation Act of 2013 into the Senate.  This bill, known as S. 169 or "I²", clearly has bipartisan support, and aims to broadly reform high skilled immigration.  The bill was originally introduced by Senator Hatch in January, 2013 but it was quickly overshadowed by the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill, and neither bill made any headway in Congress.  Perhaps this year the result will be different.

The bill contemplates reforms that are long overdue, including the following:

• A market-based adjustment to the H-1B visa cap with a new floor of 115,000;