H4 Can Get Green Card – House Passes Dreamers Act 2021

House has passed the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021 on Mar 18, 2021.

The bill is primarily meant to help undocumented immigrants and their kids to get on to a path to citizenship without any country-of-birth-based limits.

The earlier version of this had passes house in 2019 but never made it past the Senate.

After today’s 228-197 vote, the bill will now head to Senate again where it would need at least 60 votes to pass. Since the bill has been championed by Democrats, President Joe Biden is expected to sign it immediately if it clears Senate hurdles.

H4, L2 Child Green Card

The big highlight for legal work visa families is the inclusion of H4 and L2 dependents which were not part of this bill in the 2019 version. What this essentially means is that the H4 and L2 kids will be eligible to get a green card even if they age out at 21 while their parents are waiting in the GC backlog.

Criteria:

1. Should have arrived in the USA before Jan 1, 2021.
2. Should have been less than 18 years old on the date of first entry.
3. Have no criminal background
4. Graduate from US high school

Almost all H4 and L2-dependent kids will easily fit this criterion and will be eligible to get a 10-year conditional green card. If the bill sees the sun someday, the pain of applying H4 to F1 application will be relieved.

How to Remove Conditions on Green Card?

The 10 year conditional green card can be converted to normal green card if the child does one of these:

• The child gets an education degree from the US college or complete at least two years in good standing in a bachelor’s or higher degree program or in an area career and technical education program at a post-secondary level in the U.S. OR
• Complete at least two years of military service, and if discharged, received an honorable discharge; or
• Be employed for periods of time totaling at least three years and at least 75 percent of the time that the person has had employment authorization.

Approval Chances in Senate

Democrats have 50 votes in Senate and would need additional 10 votes from Republicans to pass this bill there. It is possible that they are able to get those 10 votes keeping in mind that they got 7 republicans in their last attempt.

If they are able to convince 10 republicans to vote for this bill, it might become a reality soon.

Our estimate for the chances of this bill becoming a law are 50% given the surge in children reaching the US-Mexico border in the hope that they will get a chance to live in America.

Republicans are most probably going to oppose it as it somehow sets a wrong precedent and an impression that you can jump the border and can still get US citizenship.

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