On 7/31/08 and 8/1/08, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration held a mark-up session and approved the visa recapture bill (H.R.5882) by a vote of 8-1. The bill is originally sponsored by Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration. This bill intends to recapture employment-based immigrant visas lost to bureaucratic delays and to prevent losses of family- and employment-based immigrant visas in the future.

Currently, USCIS consistently fails to use all the annual immigrant visa numbers. At the same time, there are hundreds of thousands of aliens waiting for visa numbers. Under current law, these unused immigrant visa numbers are wasted: they cannot be “rolled over” to the next year. Representative Lofgren’s bill intends to recapture these unused visas. If the bill is passed, USCIS will be able to issue these recaptured visa numbers to applicants in the following year.

If passed, this bill would substantially ease the current EB visa bulletin issue, especially retrogression for applicants born in China and India.

This bill will now go to the full House Judiciary Committee for review, but no date has been scheduled yet. If the full House Judiciary Committee passes it, it needs to go to the House of Representatives and Senate for discussion. If both the Senate and the House of Representatives pass the bill, it will go to the President for signature before it becomes an act. So it will still be awhile before this bill becomes an act, if it is passed at all.

We hope this bill sponsored by Representative Lofgren will be passed and ease the current visa bulletin retrogression problem. Representative Lofgren has a substantial impact on immigration issues in the House. Our attorney representatives met her in person on September 18, 2007 and discussed broad immigration issues.

The U.S. House and Senate will debate on this bill. As the immigration subcommittee members have a greater influence on immigration bills, we encourage our readers to contact these members to support this bill. Below, we list the members of the immigration subcommittees and their contact information. We urge our readers and their attorneys to contact lawmakers and help get the bill passed.
Immigration, Refugees and Border Security Subcommittee in US Senate
Edward M. Kennedy (MA, Chair)
317 Russell Senate Building
Washington D.C. 20510
Tel: (202) 224-4543
Fax: (202) 224-2417
http://kennedy.senate.gov/senator/contact.cfm
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (DE)
201 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Tel: (202) 224-5042
Fax: (202) 224-0139
http://biden.senate.gov/services/contact/
Dianne Feinstein (CA)
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Tel:: (202) 224-3841
Fax: (202) 228-3954
http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.EmailMe
Charles E. Schumer (NY)
313 Hart Senate Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel: (202) 224-6542
Fax: (202) 228-3027
http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/webform.cfm
Richard J. Durbin (IL)
309 Hart Senate Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
9 am to 6 pm
(202) 224-2152 – ph
(202) 228-0400 ¨C fx
http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm
John Cornyn (TX)
517 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Main: (202) 224-2934
Fax: (202) 228-2856
http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm
Charles E. Grassley (IA)
135 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-1501
Tel: (202) 224-3744
http://grassley.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
Jon Kyl (AZ)
730 Hart Senate Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Tel: (202) 224-4521
Fax: (202) 224-2207
http://kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Jeff Sessions (AL)
335 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510 -0104
Tel: (202) 224-4124
Fax: (202) 224-3149
http://sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ConstituentServices.ContactMe
Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law in US House
Zoe Lofgren (CA, Chair)
102 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Tel: (202) 225-3072
http://lofgren.house.gov/emailform.shtml
Luis V. Gutierrez (IL)
2367 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
Tel: (202) 225-8203
http://luisgutierrez.house.gov/singlepage.aspx?newsid=1262
Howard L. Berman (CA)
2221 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Tel: (202) 225-4695
http://www.house.gov/berman/contact/index.shtml
Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX)
2435 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
Tel: (202) 225-3816
http://www.jacksonlee.house.gov/contact.shtml
Maxine Waters (CA)
2344 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Tel: (202) 225-2201
http://www.house.gov/waters/IMA/issue.htm
Bill Delahunt (MA)
2454 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Tel: (202) 225-3111
William.Delahunt@mail.house.gov
Linda T. Sanchez (CA)
1007 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Tel: (202) 225-6676
Artur Davis (AL)
208 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, D.C. 20515
Tel: (202) 225-2665
Keith Ellison (MN)
1130 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Tel: 202-225-4755
http://ellison.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87
Anthony Weiner (NY)
1122 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Tel: (202) 225-6616
Weiner@mail.house.gov
Steve King (IA)
1432 Longworth Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Tel: (202) 225-4426
http://www.house.gov/steveking/email.shtm
Elton Gallegly (CA)
2427 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-0523
Tel: (202) 225-5811
Bob Goodlatte (VA)
2240 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Tel: (202) 225-5431
http://www.house.gov/goodlatte/emailbob.htm
Dan Lungren (CA)
2448 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
https://forms.house.gov/lungren/forms/email.shtml
J. Randy Forbes (VA)
307 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Tel: (202) 225-6365
http://forbes.house.gov/zipauth.html
Louie Gohmert (TX)
508 Cannon Building
Washington, DC 20515
Tel: (202) 225-303
http://gohmert.house.gov/contact_louie.htm
Founded in 1996, Zhang & Associates, P.C. offers legal services to clients nationwide in all aspects of U.S immigration law. We have successfully handled thousands of immigration cases.
At Zhang & Associates, P.C., not only are we dedicated to our clients, but we also advocate for legal immigrants’ rights and benefits. We bring the issues related to legal immigrants to the public and lobby lawmakers to address them. We believe in the American democratic process and are working hard to bring about a better immigration system.
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