So according to this one it appears that the 'hold' on the bill is not indefinite but may or may not have a hard time passing.
Not a lot of CLEAR info on the issue that I can see.
Bill to hasten green cards may soon get Senate hearing
The Bill would eliminate country-based caps in the green card system
Posted: Tue, Jan 10 2012. 11:42 PM ISTUS
New Delhi: AUS immigration Bill that would significantly reduce the wait time for Indian and Chinese green card applicants may soon be heard in the Senate, which reopens later this month. According to immigration analysts, it is the only immigration Bill that has any real chance of passing before American presidential elections later this year.
HR3012, or The Fairness for Highly-Skilled Immigrants Act, was passed by an unprecedented landslide vote of 389-15 in the House of Representatives on 29 November, and was fast tracked to be heard in the Senate. The Bill would eliminate country-based caps in the green card system, which would significantly reduce wait times for Indian and Chinese applicants, but could moderately increase the waiting period for other groups. The Bill was held in the senate by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who has said that he would only release his hold of the Bill if it includes a version of his proposed H-1B visa reforms. The hold could lead to a filibuster (unlimited open debate on the Bill), which can only be overridden by “cloture”—60 Senate votes.
HR3012 is significant in that it is the first immigration Bill that has received such overwhelming bipartisan support among legislators in the recent years of attempts at immigration reform, according to Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at NYU school of law. Chishti also says that it is the only Bill that has any real chance of passing before the presidential elections later this year. “The big surprise of 2011 was that something on immigration, that has eluded any bipartisan support, has gained traction,” Chishti said. “There seems to be significant consensus on highly skilled immigrants that has remained unchanged despite the labour market outlook.”
Under the current system, the federal government limits the annual number of employer-sponsored green cards to 140,000, of which no more than 7% is allocated to any one country (including family members of sponsored applicants). Critics of the current system argue that the cap discriminates against highly skilled workers from countries where green card demand is high, such as China and India—which also represent a significant portion of green card applicants. A study published last October by the Washington-based National Foundation for American Policy found that Indian applicants for green cards from the EB2 category (highly skilled professionals with graduate degrees) faced waits of up to seven years, while Indians applying in the EB3 (skilled professionals with a college degree) could wait as much as 70 years due to the country caps.
more:
http://www.livemint.com/2012/01/10234222/US-Bill-to-hasten-green-cards.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
