Chris Dodd: “This amendment would unite parents with their families in the United States by increasing the cap on green cards issued…”

“This amendment would unite parents with their families in the United States by increasing the cap on green cards issued to them, extending the duration of the newly created parent visa, and ensuring that penalties imposed on people overstaying this visa are not unfairly applied to others, as they would be in this legislation. Under current law, parents of U.S. citizens are defined as immediate relatives, along with spouses and minor children, and are exempt from green card caps. Under the proposed legislation, S. 1348, parents would be removed from this category and subject to an annual cap of 40,000 green cards. This amendment increases the cap on green cards in this bill to 90,000. That is about the average annual number of green cards issued to parents of U.S. citizens. Second, we are trying to extend the duration of the newly created parent visitor visa to 180 days. Under this bill, the amount of time a parent could stay here under a parent visitor visa is limited to 30 days per year.”